NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's personal assistant Bibhav Kumar “misbehaved” with AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal at the CM's residence, party leader Sanjay Singh said at a press conference on Tuesday. The admission comes a day after Maliwal in a phone call to the police alleged that a member of Kejriwal's personal staff had assaulted her. Singh said Kejriwal would take strict action in the matter.
The police said they were waiting for Mahiwal to file a formal complaint. They had not closed the daily diary (DD) entry as Maliwal had come to the police station on Monday and said she would return to lodge a case. Maliwal did not return calls asking for her comments, PTI said. Maliwal was earlier the chief of the Delhi Commission For Women (DCW).
The BJP demanded that Singh's statement should be the basis for immediate filing of an FIR by police and those guilty should be promptly dealt with.
National Commission for Women chief Rekha Sharma expressed concern over Maliwal's safety in a post on X. She wondered if Maliwal was under pressure not to lodge a police complaint and urged the AAP leader to “speak up”.
During the press conference on Tuesday, Singh said it was a “highly condemnable incident” and added the Aam Aadmi Party was in solidarity with Maliwal.
“Yesterday morning, Maliwal had gone to meet Arvind Kejriwal at his residence. While she was waiting to meet him in the drawing room, Bibhav Kumar came and misbehaved with her. This is a highly condemnable incident. Kejriwal has taken cognisance of it and will take strict action in the incident,” Singh added.
“Maliwal has done a lot of work for the country and society. She is a senior party leader. We are with her during this time. The party does not support those (who insult women). The whole incident has been taken seriously by Kejriwal,” he said, adding that she had reported the matter to the police by calling on 112.
Maliwal on Monday went to the Civil Lines Police Station and alleged that a member of the Delhi Chief Minister's personal staff “assaulted' her at the official residence, police officials had said.
Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said the AAP's silence regarding the incident on Monday reflected the mentality of the party. “Sanjay Singh's statement that the party will take action in the matter is quite embarrassing” he said. “Instead of deciding after violence against a woman, arrests should have been made immediately,” he said.
“Sanjay Singh claims that Arvind Kejriwal was not there at the time, but the BJP knows through sources that this entire incident occurred at the behest of and in front of Arvind Kejriwal,” he alleged. The Delhi BJP president questioned why so much pressure was put on Maliwal and why she was silenced.
He said that the Chief Minister's residence is famous for such incidents, whether it was the incident with the former chief secretary or misbehaviour with Maliwal.
In February 2018, the then Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, had alleged that he was assaulted by AAP MLAs at Kejriwal's residence in the presence of the Chief Minister and Manish Sisodia, then deputy chief minister.
