New Delhi: With the row over AAP minister Satyendar Jain getting massage in prison refusing to die down, sources on Tuesday claimed his masseur was a fellow prisoner accused of raping a minor, while the BJP and the Congress assailed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and demanded the sacking of the jailed minister.
The AAP hit back at the BJP saying it is trying to malign the image of Kejriwal ahead of the MCD polls in Delhi as it has no real issues to talk about and cited treatment received by party leader and Union Home Minister Amit Shah when he was in jail.
The person shown massaging Jain in a CCTV footage was identified as Rinku, the sources claimed.
“He is lodged in Tihar jail for raping a minor in JP Kalan in 2021. A case under various sections including Pocso Act was registered against him by police. Rinku is not a physiotherapist,” a source claimed.
The claim comes days after the Aam Aadmi Party, which has been drawing flak over the videos, asserted that Jain was receiving physiotherapy in the jail, where he is in judicial custody for the past five months over money-laundering charges.
The BJP demanded that Kejriwal apologise to the nation and dismiss Jain.
“Satyendar Jain shouldn’t retain the post of a Delhi minister for a minute anymore,” said BJP spokesperson Gaurav Bhatia.
He demanded that Kejriwal should resign if “his shoulders are too weak” to carry the responsibility of dismissing Jain after this episode.
Jain could be seen in the purported videos getting back and foot massages in his cell, reading some documents and talking to visitors while lying on a bed. Mineral water bottles and a remote are also seen. In one video, he was seen getting a head massage while sitting on a chair.
Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had claimed Jain was receiving physiotherapy following a spinal injury and accused the BJP of doing “cheap” politics on health issues by illegally leaking CCTV footage.
Targetting the AAP, Union minister Hardeep Singh Puri said, “Many have commented that Delhi did not become London, but it has become a Thailand spa.”
Talking to reporters on the sidelines of an event here, he further said: “They (AAP) are saying why objections are being raised on medical therapy. But a new thing has come to the fore today that the masseur who was seen in the video giving a massage (to Jain) is facing charges of a different kind.”
Chief of Delhi unit of AAP and a colleague of Jain in the Kejriwal government, Gopal Rai alleged that BJP was highlighting matters related to Sisodia and Jain and other sting operations since it does not have any election issues related to Municipal Corporation of Delhi election.
On Jain apparently getting special treatment inside jail, he said: “Amit Shah was in Gujarat jail and at that time, there was a special jail for him. The kind of treatment he got nobody can get ever. This is available on record.”
“The issue is not of him (Jain) getting treatment, but the issue is that what treatment will Delhi people give the BJP on December 4,” Rai said.
He alleged that the BJP’s only agenda was just to tarnish the image of Kejriwal.
“In Delhi, for the last 10 days, there are two parties that are campaigning, while Congress is not part of the battle,” Rai said.
“On one side are those who are campaigning on the basis of their work. On the other hand there are those who just want to indulge in mudslinging,” he said.
Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate alleged that Kejriwal’s “hypocrisy” is coming out in the open, every day, every moment.
“As soon as the video came, it was said that he was a physiotherapist. But he was not a physiotherapist, he is Rinku, a rape accused under POCSO Act. The man accused of sexual abuse of children has been found pressing his feet. Those who came to change politics have changed very quickly,” she said.
Jain is in judicial custody for the past five months in a money-laundering case registered by the Enforcement Directorate (ED).
The agency had claimed in the court that Jain was getting special treatment, including massage and special food, in the jail. It had also presented CCTV footage to substantiate the claim.
The ED on Tuesday told a Delhi court that it had no role in the alleged leakage of CCTV footage of Jain reportedly getting special treatment inside the prison cell. The jailed AAP minister had filed a plea seeking contempt proceedings against the agency for allegedly leaking the videos to the media.
PTI