Advised physiotherapy, but accused of getting ‘massage’ in prison: AAP leader Satyendar Jain on leaked CCTV footage - The Indian Express

[mnews]

A day after he was granted bail in an alleged money laundering case and walked out of Tihar Jail after an 18-month prison stint, former Delhi Health Minister Satyendar Jain Saturday addressed the controversy surrounding leaked CCTV footage from 2022 that showed him getting a ‘massage’ and eating food in his cell.

Explaining that it was a routine physiotherapy session recommended by doctors due to his health issues, he questioned why only his footage had been leaked when there were cameras throughout the prison complex. “Tihar has cameras everywhere, so why doesn’t footage of anything else come out? Why is only my footage available? They claimed I was having lavish meals, but all I had was seasonal fruit and vegetables…” He added, “They said I drank bottled water, but I bought it from the canteen, which is available to everyone. Everyone had a TV; I didn’t have a separate one.”


Jain was arrested in 2022 in relation to a Rs 4.8-crore money laundering case lodged by the ED.


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Questioning the BJP for releasing the video during the Gujarat elections, he alleged that they didn’t want him to receive proper treatment.

Jain, the MLA from Shakur Basti, also claimed the BJP aimed to destroy the AAP by jailing its top leaders. “Arvind Kejriwal had told us early on that by trying to change the country’s politics, we would inevitably face jail. But at times, we felt this couldn’t actually happen… we didn’t realise how much bitterness some leaders carry in their hearts… What bothers them is not that Kejriwal entered politics, but he didn’t become like them,” he alleged.


On the charges against him, he said: “The ED has been investigating this so-called money laundering case for seven years, and the CBI since 2017. What are these agencies actually doing?”

He also expressed his gratitude to the judiciary for his release, stating, “If not for the judiciary, the BJP would have hanged me.”


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Meanwhile, Jain also offered prayers at Saraswati Vihar Jain temple along with his family and then met former CM Kejriwal.

Reacting to Jain’s claims, BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “Whenever AAP leaders like Kejriwal, Manish Sisodia, Sanjay Singh, or now Satyendar Jain are released on bail, they spin fabricated stories of persecution. If Jain was indeed facing discrimination or denied legal rights, he should have raised the matter in the relevant court rather than staying silent…”