With the deadline for him to return to Tihar Jail a week away, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on Monday moved Supreme Court seeking extension of time to surrender till June 9 on the ground that he needed to undergo a comprehensive medical examination to identify whether his “unusually high blood sugar level, rapid weight loss and bouts of dizziness, coupled with palpitation”, were life-threatening.
Kejriwal was arrested by ED on March 21 in a money laundering case related to excise policy scam and was released on interim bail by SC on May 10 for campaigning. He said a senior physician from Max Hospital clinically examined him on May 25 and suggested whole body PET-CT to rule out malignancies and Holter monitor test, both of which would take five to seven days.
He said since elections in Punjab were scheduled for June 1, he would be busy campaigning till May 30, and would not be able to undergo these tests in a day.
Assuring that he had and would scrupulously abide by the interim bail conditions, Kejriwal requested SC to extend it till June 9.
The CM added that he suffers from “aggressive form of diabetes mellitus, which is volatile and undergoes wide range of swings in blood glucose, including episodes of high and low sugar”.
He claimed that “negligent behaviour of jail authorities” were partly responsible for his complications, adding that during the period of custody, he suffered weight loss of around 6-7 kg, which he was not able to regain even after renewing his earlier lifestyle since his release from prison.
The chief minister said he has also “started experiencing periodic episodes of giddiness, palpitation and overwhelming lethargy. In the meantime, recent test reports confirm that the appellant has also developed an unusually high blood glucose level as well as high ketone levels in urine, which indicate that in addition to increased blood sugar level, the appellant may have also developed kidney-related complications and kidney damage”.
Kejriwal said if Delhi HC had not upheld his illegal and mala fide arrest, he would have had 60 days of campaigning time. Because of SC’s interim bail, he got 21 days to campaign, during which he campaigned in Delhi and across India, as a result, he had only time for health check-ups at home.
