Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders will march to the BJP office today.
Amid the ongoing blame game between the AAP and Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal over her alleged assault. Meanwhile, Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar, who was arrested on Saturday in connection to the May 13 assault case, is likely to be taken to the Chief Minister’s residence on Sunday to recreate the crime scene.
On Saturday night, the Tis Hazari Court sent Bibhav Kumar to five-day police custody after the police sought his remand to interrogate him about the alleged assault and to retrieve data from his phone. A Delhi Police team arrested him from the Chief Minister’s residence earlier in the day.
The police suspect that he was at Kejriwal’s residence to tamper with evidence, the PTI news agency reported citing a senior officer as saying.
Hours after Kumar’s arrest, Kejriwal, who is out on interim bail till June 2, held a press conference in which he announced his intention to march to the BJP office on Sunday, and dared the “Prime Minister to send anyone he wants to jail”.
“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. The AAP is an idea. For as many AAP leaders you jail, the country would produce leaders a hundred times more,” Kejriwal added.
As Bibhav Kumar was arrested, Arvind Kejriwal attended several public meetings across Delhi on Saturday where he appealed to voters to cast their ballots for AAP during the Lok Sabha polls in Delhi on May 25.
“It’s in your hands. If you want me to go to jail choose the BJP, otherwise choose the AAP. They (BJP) are after us. They arrested Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain and me. Today they arrested my PA, now they will arrest Raghav Chadha, Atishi, Saurabh Bharadwaj,” he added.
After Kejriwal’s aide was sent to police custody following his arrest on Saturday, his lawyer Rishikesh Kumar told ANI news agency, “The police have filed an application to seek seven days’ remand, out of which five days remand has been given. He will be produced again on May 23. He was allowed to meet his lawyer during the investigation and also his family members. If he requires any medicine on medical grounds, it will be provided for him.”
The police said that statements of at least 10 people have been recorded, including staff members and security personnel at the Chief Minister’s residence, who were present at the Chief Minister’s residence at the time of the alleged assault on May 13.
Citing a police officer, PTI news agency reported that Bibhav Kumar was questioned about why he was present at Kejriwal’s residence on Saturday morning prior to his arrest. The police suspect that he went there to tamper with evidence.
In its remand paper after the arrest, Delhi Police said the “brutal assault” on Maliwal “could have been fatal”.
“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,” the remand paper signed by North District Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police Anjitha Chepyala, said.
The application further said that Maliwal’s testimony before the magistrate was corroborated by the medical evidence.
Bibhav Kumar’s mobile-phones have been confiscated, and the police are trying to figure out the communications he had with Maliwai. The police have said that he has deleted chats and other content from his phone.
The Delhi Police has also collected footage from eight CCTV cameras and the DVR from the Chief Minister’s residence. According to an officer, there was no CCTV camera installed in the drawing room where the alleged assault occurred.
As the blame game continued in the wake of the assault case, AAP leader Atishi said if the Delhi Police is impartial, it should also register an FIR on Bibhav Kumar’s counter complaint against Maliwal.
“This conspiracy is being carried out to harass AAP and to stop Arvind Kejriwal from campaigning. Tomorrow morning, Arvind Kejriwal will go to BJP’s headquarters, along with all the party leaders, so that the BJP can arrest whoever they want in one go,” she told PTI news agency.
AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj has said that “senior BJP leaders are in touch with Swati Maliwal”. Speaking to the PTI news agency, he said, “When a woman makes such allegations, it seems that there must be truth in her words. We, too, felt the same in the case of Swati Maliwal. But when the video of the drawing room of the Chief Minister’s residence came to light, something different was visible in it.”
In her latest tweet, Swati Maliwal has alleged that a video of Bibhav Kumar allegedly assaulting her has been edited. “Only 50 seconds (of the video) were released when I was fed up of explaining to the security guys. Now they have formatted the phone and deleted the entire video? CCTV footage is also missing! Even conspiracy has its limits!”
Meanwhile, BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla slammed Arvind Kejriwal’s decision to march to the BJP office on Sunday, saying the Chief Minister is doing “emotional atyaachaar (torture)” instead of replying to questions on Maliwal’s alleged assault.
Also reacting to Kejriwal’s challenge, Delhi BJP chief Virendraa Sachdeva questioned his silence on the alleged assault on Swati Maliwal.
“Stop doing this drama. We are asking you just one thing – you did not break your silence even six days after your woman MP was beaten up at your residence… Tell us who is responsible for the misbehaviour with the woman MP. Why have you not broken your silence over it?” the BJP leader questioned.