New Delhi (TIP)- The Delhi Police on Thursday, May 16, registered an FIR in connection with the alleged assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal by an aide of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, even as the BJP hit out at the AAP supremo for maintaining silence over the incident.
Bibhav Kumar, the personal assistant of Kejriwal, has been named as an accused in the case, officials said. He has also been summoned by the National Commission for Women (NCW) on Friday over the matter. The FIR was registered after Maliwal’s statement was recorded by a two-member team, led by Additional Commissioner of Police P S Kushwaha. It was at the Rajya Sabha member’s residence in Central Delhi for nearly four and a half hours since around 1.50 pm. Officials said the FIR has been registered at the Civil Lines police station against Kumar under Indian Penal Code sections 354 (assault or criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 509 (word gesture or act of intent to insult) and 323 (assault). The development comes two days after Maliwal went to the police station and alleged that a member of Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national convener Kejriwal’s personal staff “assaulted” her at the CM’s official residence. According to the contents of the statement given by Maliwal to police, an official source said, she was sitting in the drawing room when Kumar came and allegedly slapped her multiple times. She ran out of the CM’s residence and called police, the MP stated in her complaint, the sources said and added that she also claimed that Kejriwal was present at his residence when the incident took place. An official said police took Maliwal for medical examination to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here. In a post on X after the police team left her house, Maliwal said she has recorded her statement with the Delhi Police on what happened with her and urged the BJP to not indulge in politics. “Hope appropriate action is taken. Whatever happened with me was extremely bad,” said the MP.
She also said, “The past days have been very difficult for me. I thank those who prayed. Those who tried to indulge in character assassination, said that I was doing it at the behest of the other party, God bless them too.” According to sources, in her police complaint, Maliwal has named Kumar as the “main person” who allegedly assaulted her when she had gone to meet Kejriwal on Monday.
The BJP attacked Kejriwal after he refused to comment on the Maliwal “assault” matter during a press conference in Lucknow. He was flanked by Samajwadi Party (SP) chief Akhilesh Yadav and AAP Rajya Sabha member Sanjay Singh.
Kejriwal avoided a question on the issue and it was fielded by Singh who said his party has already made its stand clear on the issue.