Gurgaon: Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Arvind Kejriwal visited Bhondsi jail on Saturday to meet jailed Punjab cabinet minister Sanjeev Arora.The two leaders met Arora, 62, for around 20 minutes and assured him of the party’s full support. Elaborate security arrangements were put in place for the visit, with police deploying senior officers to manage movement and maintain law and order.Mann and Kejriwal arrived in the city with a convoy comprising vehicles from the Punjab, Delhi and Haryana police forces.“As we were informed about their visit well in advance, all security arrangements were completed a day earlier. Senior officers were assigned duties to ensure safe passage and avoid any untoward incident,” a senior police officer said.Arora was arrested by Enforcement Directorate (ED) in Chandigarh on May 9 in connection with an alleged fake GST billing and money laundering racket involving more than Rs 100 crore. He had remained in ED custody before being sent to judicial custody by a special PMLA court on Monday.Ahead of the hearing on Monday, Arora briefly met his family on the court premises for the first time since his arrest.During the proceedings, ED did not seek an extension of Arora’s custody and instead requested that he be remanded to judicial custody. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for June 1, when Arora will be produced before the court virtually.ED officials said custodial interrogation was no longer required at this stage as questioning had been completed for now. An official added that the agency would file its chargesheet within the stipulated period.Earlier, special judge Narendra Sura directed ED to allow Arora to meet his lawyer for one hour every day between 10am and 11am. The court also instructed the agency to provide all necessary medical facilities and medicines as advised by the medical officer.Arora also moved an application seeking permission to appoint a lawyer of his choice and sign the vakalatnama. ED special public prosecutor Simon Benjamin raised no objection to the request during the hearing.
