The Delhi Police on Saturday arrested Bibhav Kumar, the long-time personal aide of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, after Aam Aadmi Party’s (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal accused him of assault, triggering an angry response from the party that doubled down on its allegation that one of its own — Maliwal — was acting as an agent of the Bharatiya Janata Party and that her claims were false.
Kumar was taken into custody from Kejriwal’s residence at Flagstaff Road in north Delhi’s Civil Lines around Saturday noon by a Delhi Police team led by additional deputy commissioner of police (north) Anjitha Chepyala, and was taken to the Civil Lines police station.
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Maliwal in her complaint has alleged Kumar “slapped” her “at least seven to eight times” without any provocation and “brutally dragged” her while “kicking” her, forcing her to fall and hit her head on a table at the CM’s residence on May 13. Kumar has filed a counter-complaint, accusing Maliwal of forcefully entering the CM’s premises and using abusive language.
Kumar was remanded in police custody for five days by a Tis Hazari court in a ruling delivered around midnight.
Seeking his police remand for seven days at a hearing late on Saturday evening, additional public prosecutor (APP) for the Delhi Police said Kumar was arrested because the complainant “is a public figure and member of Parliament” and that the prosecution feared Kumar could influence witnesses since he had gone back to the CM’s residence.
Advocate Rajiv Mohan, appearing for Kumar, pointed to the delay in filing the case and asked why Maliwal was not taken for medical attention when she went to the police station shortly after the purported incident but left without filing a complaint.
“My submission is that the arrest is not justified and the subsequent custody is also not necessary,” said Mohan, while a second lawyer for Kumar, Shadan Farasat, alleged the arrest was made “only to render the anticipatory bail application infructuous”.
Hours before Kumar’s arrest, AAP leader and state minister Atishi showed reporters new CCTV footage of Maliwal leaving the CM’s residence on the day of the alleged incident. “It’s clear from the video that she is not in pain, nor her clothes are torn, nor she had head injuries or anything that she has mentioned in her FIR. It makes it clear that the contents of the FIR are complete lies. Nowhere in the video she said that Bibhav Kumar attacked her,” said Atishi, who has led the party’s efforts to rebut Maliwal’s claims.
On Friday, the party released a video purportedly showing Maliwal sitting on a sofa in the drawing room of the CM’s residence and talking in a raised voice to some security personnel. Atishi said the there were no visible injuries on her and that she did not detail any assault to the security people even as she “abused” them and said that she had called the police. “This was a BJP conspiracy,” the senior minister reiterated on Saturday.
HT could not independently verify the timing and circumstances of either clips.
Saturday’s arrest is the latest in a dramatic chain of events that began on May 13 and have played out against the backdrop of the Lok Sabha poll campaign in Delhi and Punjab, two states where Kejriwal, out on bail after spending 50 days in jail in connection with an excise policy case, is heavily campaigning.
Kejriwal, without going into details of the case, cited the developments and targeted the BJP. “ One after another, they are putting AAP leaders behind bars. They put me, Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, and Sanjay Singh behind bars. Today they put my PA in jail. Now they are saying they will put Raghav Chadha, Atishi, and Saurabh Bharadwaj in jail. I would like to tell the Prime Minister – you are playing this ‘jail ka khel’. Tomorrow, I am coming to the BJP headquarters with all my top leaders, MLAs, and MPs at 12 noon. You can put in jail whoever you want,” he said.
Following the arrest, Atishi held a second press briefing and said Kumar was arrest hurriedly since “the BJP and the MHA [Union home ministry, which controls the Delhi Police] know the case is false”.
“The hearing started at 3:55 pm. As soon as Kumar’s lawyers started putting forth the arguments, the BJP and Delhi Police came to know that their case was completely fake, and the verdict wouldn’t be in their favour. Because of this, just 20 minutes after the hearing started, Civil Lines police station arrested Bibhav Kumar,” she said.
A senior police officer, who asked not to be named, said that around 10.30 am, the investigating team reached Kejriwal’s residence after receiving information that Kumar had come to attend a meeting. The team detained Kumar after informing him that he was wanted in a case filed by Maliwal against him.
During the interrogation, the officer said, Kumar was asked several questions related to Monday’s incident and why he went there on Saturday despite knowing it was the scene of the crime.
Kumar, on the other hand, submitted an email complaint to the Delhi police on Friday countering Maliwal’s allegations. He said it was she who allegedly “forcefully and unauthorisedly entered the CM’s residence, abused and assaulted him and threatened to implicate him in false cases”.
