‘Is he getting salary,’ asks Kiran Bedi of jailed AAP minister, seen getting massage in Tihar
India

‘Is he getting salary,’ asks Kiran Bedi of jailed AAP minister, seen getting massage in Tihar

The former prison reformer has squarely blamed the jail administration for Satyendar Jain’s ‘easy life’, stressing that the administration reports to a political system.

   
File photo of Kiran Bedi

File photo of Kiran Bedi | ANI Photo

New Delhi: Former top cop Kiran Bedi has accused the Tihar Jail administration of kowtowing to the Delhi political system after videos emerged of jailed AAP minister Satyendar Jain either getting a massage in his cell or enjoying a scrumptious meal.

“It is the prison administration’s fault. It reports to a political system,” the former IPS officer commented Wednesday on the footage of Jain, who is in Tihar for alleged money-laundering.

“How will they take action, when their own minister is jailed,” asked the former IPS officer, who as Director General of Prisons won the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1994 for introducing “humane prison reforms” in Tihar.

She was appointed the Inspector General of Delhi Prisons in May 1993.

Bedi, who joined the BJP in 2015, continued: “May be, he (Jain) did not know there are cameras everywhere in Tihar Jail. Everything is being recorded. It should be checked if he is also being given a salary. If he is drawing a monthly salary, what is he doing? Has he opened an office in jail? Who allowed it?”

She said the Lieutenant Governor should recommend Jain’s suspension or dismissal to the President if rules permitted.

Kiran Bedi was part of the “India Against Corruption” movement along with Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia in 2011 and 2012 under the umbrella of Gandhian activist Anna Hazare.

The core group split over political differences in 2012. While Kejriwal left to form the Aam Aadmi Party, Bedi pledged her support to Narendra Modi ahead of the 2014 general elections. She joined the BJP next year and unsuccessfully fought a seat in the 2015 Delhi Assembly elections, which gave AAP an absolute majority.

Bedi was the Lieutenant Governor of Puducherry from May 2016 to February 2021.


Also read: 28 kg weight loss? New video shows Satyendar Jain eating a full plate in Tihar Jail