Swati Maliwal case: Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar sent to 3-day police custody

Delhi’s Tis Hazari Court on Tuesday sent Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar to three days police custody in the Swati Maliwal alleged assault case.

The Delhi Police had sought five days’ custody of the accused. Kumar’s counsel opposed the Delhi Police’s plea for his custodial interrogation, claiming it had no evidence.

The court order comes a day after a Delhi court rejected Kumar’s bail plea in the case, saying that there appeared no “pre-meditation” by AAP MP Swati Maliwal in lodging the FIR and that her allegations could not be “swiped away.”

“The allegations raised by the victim have to be taken on their face value and cannot be swiped away. The mere delay in registering the FIR would not have much impact on the case as the injuries are apparent in the MLC after four days,” additional sessions judge Sushil Anuj Tyagi had said.

During the hearing, Bibhav Kumar’s counsel N Hariharan had argued that the case was registered on ‘concocted’ charges against his client on May 16, days after the alleged incident on May 13 at Arvind Kejriwal’s residence.

According to an FIR, Maliwal alleged that Kumar slapped her seven to eight times without any provocation at the CM’s residence on May 13. She further alleged that Kejriwal’s aide “slapped her, kicked her in the chest and pelvis, and deliberately pulled up her shirt,”.

Bibhav Kumar was arrested on May 18 and was sent to police custody for five days on the same day by a magisterial court, which observed that his anticipatory bail plea had become infructuous because of his arrest. Last Friday, he was sent to four days’ judicial custody.

The FIR against Kumar was registered on May 16 under various Indian Penal Code provisions, including for criminal intimidation, assault or criminal force on a woman with the intent to disrobe and attempt to commit culpable homicide.