Shoe attack on Arvind Kejriwal: Accused shifted to hospital from Tihar

New Delhi, Apr 13: The man who was arrested for hurling a shoe at Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been hospitalised after he was taken ill inside Tihar jail.

Officials said that Ved Prakash, the general secretary of Aam Aadmi Sena (AAS), has been admitted to DDU hospital even as an office-bearer of the outfit claimed she was "stopped" by police and hospital staff when she had gone to meet him there.

"Prakash developed high fever last evening and was treated by jail doctors before being referred to the DDU hospital," said a senior jail official.

AAP office-bearer Bhawna Arora, meanwhile, claimed she had tried to meet Prakash in the hospital but was "stopped" from doing so. "I was prevented from meeting him although I just wanted to enquire about his health," she said.

Arora claimed Prakash had told her following his arrest that he was thrashed by some persons after he had hurled the shoe at Kejriwal. The jail official said there was no untoward incident involving Prakash inside the jail in which he might have sustained injuries.

Incidentally, Arora, who said she was in-charge of the Punjab unit of the outfit, had earlier thrown ink at Kejriwal at a rally at Chhatrasal stadium to celebrate the success of the first phase of the odd-even scheme, on January 17.

Prakash was arrested for the shoe attack at the Delhi Secretariat on April 9 when Kejriwal was holding a press conference on the roll-out of the second phase of the odd-even scheme.

Later, his bail plea was rejected by a city court and he was placed in 14-days' judicial custody on April 11. AAS is claimed to have been formed by a group of AAP dissidents in 2014.

PTI