Maliwal has alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar assaulted her on 13 May when she went to the CM's residence to meet him.
Published May 20, 2024 | 12:07 AM ⚊ Updated May 20, 2024 | 12:08 AM
AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal (Facebook)
Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal, who has been accused by her party of being part of a conspiracy to frame Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal in a false case, on Sunday, 19 May, said her party colleagues once sought justice for Nirbhaya but today they are supporting a person accused of assaulting her.
She said if AAP leader and former deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia, who is in jail in connection with the Delhi excise police case, had been here “maybe things wouldn’t have been so bad for me!”
Maliwal has alleged that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar assaulted her on 13 May when she went to the CM’s residence to meet him.
The Aam Aadmi Party has trashed her allegations and claimed Maliwal was acting at the behest of the BJP to frame Kejriwal in a fake case.
Maliwal, who has been associated with the AAP since its inception more than 10 years ago, said on Sunday there was a time when “we all used to come out on the streets to get justice for Nirbhaya”.
“Today, 12 years later, we have come out on the streets to save the accused (Bibhav Kumar) who made the CCTV footage disappear and formatted the phone? I wish they had used this much force for Manish Sisodia ji. Had he been here, maybe things wouldn’t have been so bad for me!” she wrote.
Meanwhile, AAP on Sunday said the Delhi Police had seized the DVR of CCTV cameras installed inside the chief minister’s residence in connection with its probe into the “assault” on Swati Maliwal.
The party also accused the investigators of planting stories to tarnish its image ahead of the elections.
Addressing a press conference on Sunday, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said the police have already seized the DVR (digital video recorder) of CCTV cameras.
“Yesterday (Saturday), they seized the DVR of cameras installed at the entry gates and boundary walls and today (Sunday), they seized the DVR of cameras installed in other parts of the house. The police are planting stories that the CCTV (camera) footage has been deleted but they have already seized it,” he claimed.
Bharadwaj said the CCTV cameras and the footage captured are maintained by the Public Works department and are in its custody.
He also raised questions over the sequence of events in the case.
“The call was made by Swati Maliwal on 13 May and, within no time, the image of the daily diary entry on the matter was all over the media. The FIR in the case has been registered under Section 354 (B), which is a sensitive matter that pertains to a woman,” he said.
“But the FIR was circulated everywhere. However, Bibhav Kumar, the accused, and AAP did not have a copy of the FIR,” he added.
Bharadwaj also responded to allegations that the CCTV camera footage had been deleted.
“The incident happened in the drawing room. One usually does not install cameras there. I have never seen a CCTV camera. When a camera is not there, how can its footage be deleted? The police have everything with them and if they would have seen anything they would have shared it with the media,” the Delhi minister said.
“The police are planting stories at the behest of the BJP to tarnish the image of AAP before the elections,” he alleged.
The Delhi Police arrested Kumar on Saturday and produced him in Tis Hazari Court, which remanded him in five-day police custody.
Polling for Delhi’s seven Lok Sabha seats will be held on 25 May.
(Edited by Shauqueen Mizaj, with PTI inputs)
