Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) senior leader Bhagwant Mann on Monday met Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal in Tihar jail. The meeting reportedly took place in the ‘mulakat jangla’ (a room divided with a glass wall) in the jail and the two leaders spoke via intercom.

Following the meeting, Mann hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the central government over Kejriwal’s arrest in connection with the Delhi excise policy case, saying that the chief minister is being treated like “one of the biggest terrorists” in the country.

“It was very sad to see that he is not getting the facilities that are available even to hardcore criminals. What’s his fault? You’re treating him as if you have caught one of the biggest terrorists in the country. What does PM Modi want?” the Punjab CM questioned.

“…Arvind Kejriwal who is ‘kattar imaandaar‘ (honest man), who started the politics of transparency and ended the BJP’s politics is being treated like this,” he told the media.

Mann further said when he asked about how he was doing, Kejriwal told him to “forget it” and instead inform him about how things are going in Punjab. “Because we do the politics of ‘work’…AAP is a disciplined group, we all are together and standing firm with Arvind Kejriwal. When the results will be announced on June 4, AAP will rise as a big political power,” he said.

Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in connection with the money laundering probe linked to the alleged irregularities in the now-cancelled Delhi excise policy and was sent to judicial custody till April 15 in the last hearing. He is the first sitting chief minister to be arrested in the case.

On Monday, the Supreme Court sought a response from the ED on a plea filed by Kejriwal challenging his arrest. A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta asked the probe agency to file a reply to the plea by April 24, adding that the matter would be heard in the week commencing April 29.

(With inputs from ANI)