Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal has accused Delhi chief minister and AAP convener Arvind Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar of assaulting her at the CM’s residence. AAP though has tried to shift the blame to the Bharatiya Janata Party. Delhi minister Atishi called it a “conspiracy orchestrated by the BJP whose face is Swati Maliwal”. But what does the BJP have to say about its alleged involvement?
Ask BJP’s national spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla and he is surprised at the allegation. “The person who ordered the hit is from AAP. The person who actually hit is from AAP. The person who confirmed the incident is from AAP. The person who called up the police is from AAP. An eyewitness is also from AAP. Yet the accusation is that it’s a BJP ploy,” he told News18.
On Friday, Maliwal filed an FIR with graphic details of what allegedly happened to her, something that could derail Kejriwal’s Lok Sabha election campaign while he is out on interim bail granted by the Supreme Court. The Aam Aadmi Party, which recently propped up the then jailed CM’s wife Sunita Kejriwal as the face of its election campaign, is facing considerable flak on a women-centric issue.
In her First Information Report (FIR), former Delhi Commission for Women chief Maliwal has alleged that Bibhav Kumar, who has now been arrested, slapped her seven-eight times, deliberately pulled up her shirt, kicked her in the chest, stomach and pelvis area, and called her a “neech aurat”.
While AAP has released some video clips purportedly to contradict the claims, Atishi alleged that Maliwal was neither assaulted nor abused. Instead, she accused the MP of using threatening language against Kumar and the security personnel present and also suggested that Maliwal had the BJP’s backing.
But leaders from the BJP, which is raising this issue both in Delhi and Punjab where AAP has been expecting some gains in these elections, say they are confused about what their role is in the whole row. BJP’s Delhi leader Kapil Mishra says AAP should first decide its political stance. “First Sanjay Singh accepted that Swati Maliwal received abusive behaviour and Arvind Kejriwal would take action against Bibhav Kumar. Now, Atishi is claiming Swati is lying. Does that mean Sanjay Singh too was lying?”
AAP while not addressing this contradiction has come up with more theories. “When the police asked Swati Maliwal to undergo MLC on the said date, she refused. But after three days, the BJP brings out Swati Maliwal with a new lie. The video shows the truth,” claimed Atishi on Friday.
Defence came from Swati Maliwal’s close associate, an old hand of AAP and DCW member Vandana Singh who wrote on social media site X asking for the “full video”.
BJP spokesperson Sanju Verma said, “Whether Swati Maliwal had had medical examination after 24 or 48 or 72 hours is not the question. The crux of the matter is she had a 4.5-hour medical examination at AIIMS in Delhi which corroborated she was indeed physically assaulted.”
As BJP starts asking counter questions on the contradictions between Sanjay Singh and Atishi or Swati Maliwal’s medical report corroborating her accusations, AAP seems to be short of answers. As Delhi — a city known to have come to the streets after the Nirbhaya gang rape — warms up to vote on May 25, the row may cost AAP dear.
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