I am a nobody now, an MP without a party: AAP’s Swati Maliwal in HC during Bibhav Kumar’s bail hearing in assault case

The HC, meanwhile, reserved its verdict in Kumar’s bail plea in the case pertaining to the alleged assault on Maliwal at the CM’s residence in May. A single-judge bench of Justice Anoop Kumar Mendiratta said the order will be pronounced on Friday, July 12.

Maliwal, who was present in the courtroom, said, “I was brutally assaulted by the PA (Kumar); it was horrible. And after that, the CM himself has protested on the streets in favour of the PA. All the Delhi government ministers…have done press conferences where they have tried to show that I am some other party’s agent…That is not true”.

She further said that she had undergone “vicious social media trolling”, adding that the “life of her and her family is under threat”.

She further said, “Presently, everybody in the party reports to this man (Kumar)…As far as I am concerned, I am a nobody now because I am an MP without a party…My only request is please give justice to me.”
Earlier, appearing for Kumar, senior advocate N Hariharan said that the petitioner had been in custody for 54 days, while all “necessary investigations are completed”.
He submitted that the Delhi Police has collated all evidence on May 16 itself. He further said that not granting bail to Kumar would amount to “pre-trial punishment” in a case where offence under Section 308 IPC (attempt to commit culpable homicide) is not made out.

“There was no incident of this sort (the assault) which happened. She is a sitting MP and it is highly unimaginable that without any cause, the political secretary will choose to beat her up,” Hariharan further said.

Hariharan also questioned as to why the complaint was not filed on the date of the alleged incident, and filed three days later i.e. May 16.

“I’m (Kumar) one of the lowest functionaries…She is an MP…Where was the question of just going and beating her up?,” Hariharan said.

He further submitted that Kumar had also made a complaint for a case of trespass with respect to Maliwal on May 17; however, the police had “chosen not to register anything in relation to that”.

Opposing the bail plea, senior advocate Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Delhi Police, said, “We are in the midst of investigation. On or before July 16, we will file the chargesheet.”

Jain said that on May 17, when the police reached the CM’s residence for investigation, two NVRs (network video recorder) were recovered while “one NVR was missing”.

He further said, “The data was provided on pen drive and it surfaced that for the relevant period mentioned in the FIR, the recording…was missing…”

Maliwal’s counsel also pointed out that there were “two clips which were edited and doctored” that were “released a few days after FIR was lodged”.