Compiled by CASSANDRA VICTOR, C. ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
PRISON officials in New Delhi, India, are in hot water after pictures and footage of an imprisoned former minister getting a massage was leaked on social media, Makkal Osai reported.
Satyendar Kumar Jain, who used to be a Cabinet minister in the Delhi government under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), was arrested on money laundering charges in May.
The pictures and video, which apparently showed him getting a massage while lying on his bed and talking on a handphone in his Tihar prison cell, caused an outrage.
AAP claimed that Satyendar Kumar was prescribed massage therapy by doctors and that a physiotherapist was administering the massage.
However, prison officials contradicted the statement, claiming that the person giving Satyendar Kumar the massage was a fellow prisoner and not a physiotherapist.
The superintendent of Tihar Jail, Ajit Kumar, had since been suspended over the apparent luxury treatment accorded to the prisoner.
But days after the suspension, another video showing Satyendar Kumar enjoying a luxury meal leaked, fuelling further anger.
It was reported that the leaks were believed to have come from the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had sought to undermine AAP’s popularity in Delhi.
The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.
