 "Bibhav Kumar, Bibhav")
A Delhi court on Friday remanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide, Bibhav Kumar, to four days of judicial custody in the alleged Swati Maliwal assault case. He is scheduled to appear before the court again on May 28.
Bibhav's counsels have moved an application seeking to procure and preserve the CCTV footage and the DVRs.
“These CCTVs prove my case. They have searched various times and have taken CCTV footage; how much footage they have, we do not know. We are seeking for the footage to be preserved,” Kumar's counsel argued in court.
The additional public prosecutor countered, stating, "Under what provision has this application been moved? These prayers are not applicable at this stage as the matter is under investigation."
“They have not given any detail of which CCTV footage they require. A copy of the same has also been given to the occupier. They have said they want the same, but it is not the stage; it will come later. Initially, we had asked for DVR, but they gave us a pen drive which was blank. Now they have given us an NVR which has been given to the expert for examination,” the additional public prosecutor added.
Bibhav Kumar, a key aide of Kejriwal, was arrested by the Delhi Police last week, days after he lodged a counter-complaint accusing Swati Maliwal of gaining 'unauthorised entry' into the CM's Civil Lines residence and 'verbally abusing' him.
In his complaint, Kumar charged Maliwal with unauthorised entry, verbal abuse, and threats while also claiming the BJP's involvement in the matter.
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'Arvind Kejriwal is protecting Bibhav Kumar'
This comes a day after AAP leader Swati Maliwal accused Arvind Kejriwal of protecting Bibhav Kumar, claiming that the Delhi chief minister was at his residence when Kumar allegedly assaulted her.
In an interview with the news agency ANI, Swati Maliwal said, "It is a fact that despite all this happening till date, I have not received any call from Arvind ji nor has he met me till now. Arvind ji is protecting the accused... Instructions have been given to every person in the entire party to assassinate my character."
Revisiting the turn of events on May 13, Maliwal said, "I had gone to see Arvind Kejriwal at his residence at around 9 am on May 13. His staff asked me to sit in the drawing room and told me that Arvind ji was at home and was coming to meet me shortly."
"The next moment, Bibhav Kumar barged into the drawing room, and I asked him if something was wrong. At that, he started hitting me. He slapped me 7-8 times with full force. When I tried to push him away, he grabbed my leg and began to drag me. My head hit the centre table. I fell on the floor, after which he started kicking me," Maliwal added.
She further said she screamed for help, but "it fell on deaf ears."
"It was strange that no one turned up to help me," said Maliwal.
When asked if Bibhav Kumar was acting on instructions given by someone, the Rajya Sabha MP said, "That is all a matter of investigation now. I am fully cooperating with the Delhi Police [in the probe]. But yes, I am not giving anyone a clean chit. Because the fact remains that when I was in the drawing room, Arvind Kejriwal was at home."
"I did not care about my own safety, my career, and to what extent these people could have gone with me. I just thought to myself, like I tell every woman to side with the truth, lodge genuine complaints, but if something wrong has been done to you, you stand up and fight against it. That's exactly what I am doing today," she said.
BJP vs AAP over Swati Maliwal assault case
A major political slugfest has erupted over the alleged assault on Swati Maliwal as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been launching continuous attacks on the Arvind Kejriwal-led party and the Delhi chief minister himself.
The AAP, on the other hand, has been claiming that the assault allegations on Kejriwal's former personal assistant are a conspiracy hatched by the saffron party.
The matter is under investigation by the Delhi Police.
