New Delhi: The investigation in the Swati Maliwal assault case is based on “statements of witnesses, technical and forensic analysis”, ThePrint has learnt.
The Delhi Police Tuesday filed a chargesheet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar, who is currently in judicial custody. According to the chargesheet, he tampered with the CCTV footage of the CM’s residence, as well as his own house, sources say.
The chargesheet has been filed under Indian Penal Code sections, 201 (causing disappearance of evidence of offence), 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 341 (wrongful restraint), 354 (assault or criminal force to a woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 354 B (assault or use of criminal force against a woman with the intent to disrobe her), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 509 (insult caused to the modesty of a woman by the use of any words, gestures or object intending to the do the same). Additionally, the police have invoked section 204 for destruction of evidence against Kumar.
According to sources, forensic reports in the case are still awaited. “The probe in the case is based on statements of witnesses, technical and forensic analysis. Forensic reports in the case are still awaited,” a senior police officer told ThePrint. The witnesses in the case also include security staff posted in Kejriwal’s residence. Kumar was also taken to Mumbai by the Delhi Police for the recovery of alleged deleted data from his phone along with other evidence.
In the FIR lodged on the basis of Rajya Sabha MP and former Delhi Commission for Women chief Maliwal, Kumar is accused of kicking her seven to eight times in her chest and stomach when she had gone to meet the Delhi Chief Minister in his residence on 13 May. She also accused Kumar of banging her head against the table. Kumar was arrested on 18 May.
“He started screaming at me without any provocation. He even started abusing me. I was stunned by his reaction… I reacted by telling him to stop talking to me like this and call the CM,” the FIR notes.
The case has led to infighting within the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), with Maliwal stating that she won’t be resigning from her post.
(Edited by Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri)
Also read: ‘Missing’ bones traced to CBI storehouse after e-mail — the new twists in Sheena Bora murder case