Swati Maliwal assault case: Court rejects Bibhav Kumar's bail plea

Maliwal's advocate said that despite the fact that Kumar was in jail, Maliwal was receiving threats.

A court here on Monday dismissed the bail plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's close aide Bibhav Kumar who is accused of assaulting AAP MP Swati Maliwal at the CM’s residence.

Additional Sessions Judge Sushil Anuj Tyagi of Tiz Hazari court rejected the bail plea of Kumar, a personal assistant of the CM, after hearing arguments from both sides. A detailed order on the matter is awaited. During the proceedings, Rajya Sabha MP Maliwal told the court that there was a threat to her life and grave danger to her family if Kumar was released. She claimed that a one-sided video about the incident "was made by a YouTuber", following which she started receiving threats.

A couple of videos from the chief minister’s residence from the day of the incident on May 13 have surfaced on social media, one showed Maliwal having an argument with security personnel, while the other showed her walking out of the CM’s residence in the Civil Lines. Maliwal's advocate said that despite the fact that Kumar was in jail, Maliwal was receiving threats.

He questioned Kumar's innocence, alleging that Kumar had formatted his phone and deleted the CCTV footage of the incident. Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Srivastava said that Maliwal did not trespass on the CM’s residence. He also said that Kumar was an influential person despite the termination of his services. Kumar's counsel sought bail, saying his client fulfilled the triple test for bail — he was not a flight risk, nor he is likely to tamper with evidence or influence witnesses.

Claiming that Kumar was arrested despite cooperating with the police, Kumar’s counsel said that the FIR in the case was registered after a delay of three days as an afterthought. Kumar was sent to four days of judicial custody on Saturday and is expected to be produced in the court on Tuesday. His anticipatory bail plea filed on May 18 was observed as becoming infructuous by the court after his arrest.