Kejriwal Was Home While Bibhav Slapped And Dragged Me, Alleges Swati Maliwal

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal recounted her encounter with Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar on May 13, alleging that the Delhi chief minister was present at his residence when she was assaulted. This revelation contradicts Kejriwal's statement that he was not at home during the alleged incident.

"I went to Kejriwal's residence on May 13 around 9am. The staff made me sit in the drawing room and told me that Kejriwal would come to meet me there...By that time, Bibhav barged into the room. I told him Arvind ji was coming to meet me, what's the issue. I said this much and he started beating me...He slapped me seven-eight times. When I tried to push him, he grabbed my legs and pulled me down on the floor. My head banged on the centre table. As I fell on the floor, he started kicking me. I screamed for help but nobody came," Swati Maliwal said in an interview with news agency ANI.

"I told him that I was on my periods but still he didn't listen and kept hitting me," she added.

Maliwal then said when she called the police, Bibhav told her to do "whatever she wants to".

"I called the police and when he realized that I had called the police, he went out and called the security... They made a 15-second doctored video viral, they tampered with the evidence," she stated.

While AAP has called it a conspiracy by the BJP to unsettle the party and its leader Arvind Kejriwal during the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has repeatedly denied the charge and labeled AAP as an "anti-aurat (woman) party." Reacting to accusations from AAP members that she was a BJP agent, Maliwal said they were "questioning her character to save a goon."

When asked whether Bibhav was instructed to assault her, the former DCW head said, "It is a matter of investigation whether he acted on his own or whether he was instructed to do so. I am cooperating with the investigation."

"I am not giving any clean chit to anyone. The fact is I was being beaten up and Arvind Kejriwal was there," Maliwal added.