'Out On Streets To Save Accused': Swati Maliwal Takes Swipe At AAP Protest After Kejriwal Aide Bibhav's Arrest

Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal on Sunday took a swipe at AAP over the party’s plans to take out a demonstration outside BJP headquarters following the arrest of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide, Bibhav Kumar. This comes as Bibhav was sent to five days in police custody in connection with the alleged assault on Swati Maliwal after a late-night court hearing on Saturday.

The Delhi Police arrested Kumar a day earlier and his anticipatory bail plea was subsequently observed as becoming “infructuous”. It is alleged that Kumar, the personal assistant of Kejriwal, assaulted Maliwal at the CM’s residence on May 13 morning. A few hours after his arrest on Saturday, Kejriwal accused BJP of “playing jail khel”. The Delhi CM, while addressing a media briefing announced that he, along with AAP leaders, MPs and MLAs will march towards BJP headquarters on Sunday at noon and “you can put in jail whoever you want”.

“There was a time when we all came out on the streets to get justice for Nirbhaya. Today, after 12 years, we are out on the streets to save the accused who made the CCTV footage disappear and formatted the phone? I wish I had used this much force for Manish Sisodia ji. If he had been here, maybe this bad thing wouldn’t have happened to me!” said Swati Maliwal.

Earlier on Saturday, the Delhi Police in its remand paper submitted seeking seven days’ custody of Kejriwal’s aide, saying that it was a “serious case” where the “brutal assault” could have turned “fatal”. Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal, who sent Kumar to five-day police custody, was told by the investigating agency that he did not cooperate with the police and had been evasive in his replies.

“This is a very serious case where a Member of Parliament, a public figure, has been brutally assaulted which could have been fatal. Despite specific questions, the accused has not cooperated in the investigation and has been evasive in his replies,” said the remand paper signed by North District Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Anjitha Chepyala. The remand application said that Maliwal’s testimony before the magistrate was corroborated by the medical evidence.

According to Maliwal’s allegations, Kumar screamed, threatened and used abusive language against her, besides being “brutally assaulting”, dragging and banging her head on a centre table, the plea said. It said that the “most vital evidence” was the digital video record (DVR) of the spot but it was yet to be provided to the police. According to the plea seeking police custody, a junior engineer in the CM’s residence, after admitting that he did not have access to the place where the DVR and CCTV cameras were installed, provided a video of the dining room but it was later found to be blank at the time of the alleged incident. The remand application said that on Saturday, Kumar was present at the chief minister’s residence and after being questioned, provided evasive replies.

The Delhi Police has beefed up security at the BJP headquarters here in view of a protest announced by AAP’s national convenor there on Sunday. The traffic police has also issued an advisory in view of the protest planned outside the BJP office on the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Marg. “In view of the proposed protest by a political party at DDU Marg Delhi, Traffic will remain heavy at DDU Marg, IP Marg, Minto Road and Vikas Marg. DDU marg may be closed for traffic movement between 11 am to 2 pm. Kindly avoid these roads and plan your journey accordingly,” the traffic police in a post on X.

A senior police officer said security at the BJP headquarters has been heightened as a precautionary measure. “An adequate number of police personnel has been deployed and the area has been barricaded,” said the police officer. On Saturday, addressing a press conference, Kejriwal accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of “playing the game” of sending AAP leaders such as Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, and Sanjay Singh to jail. “They are after our party and sending our leaders in jail one after another… Today you have sent my PA (Bibhav Kumar) to jail,” he said, adding the BJP is saying they will send AAP MP Raghav Chadha and Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj to jail too. “I along with my MLAs and MPs would go to the BJP office at noon tomorrow so that the prime minister can send anyone he wants to jail,” he said.

(With agency inputs)

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