On Tuesday (16th July), the Delhi Police filed a chargesheet against Bibhav Kumar, an adviser to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, in connection with an assault on Aam Aadmi Party MP Swati Maliwal. The 500-page charge sheet was filed in the courtroom of metropolitan magistrate Gaurav Goyal. Bibhav Kumar appeared in court by videoconference owing to judicial custody, which the magistrate extended until 30th July.
On the 30th of July, when a judgement regarding taking cognizance of the chargesheet will be made, Bibhav Kumar must be physically present in court. Notably, the chargesheet contains statements from 50 witnesses.
Notably, Bibhav Kumar has been booked under several sections of the Indian Penal Code including wrongful restraint (Section 341), assault with intent to outrage a woman’s modesty (Section 354), assault with intent to disrobe a woman (Section 354B), criminal intimidation (Section 506), insult to a woman’s modesty (Section 509), attempt to commit culpable homicide (Section 308), and destroying evidence or providing false information (201).
It has been alleged that Bibhav Kumar attempted to format his phone and send data to his mother’s phone. He also tampered with CCTV camera video at Kejriwal’s and his personal residences. He also refused to provide his phone password to officials. Other than Swati Maliwal and Bibhav Kumar, security personnel from the chief minister’s residence will act as witnesses.
As reported earlier, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal’s close aide Bibhav Kumar was arrested from Kejriwal’s house. In her complaint to the police, Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal had said that Bibhav Kumar attacked her at CM Kejriwal’s residence on May 13 with “full force, slapping and kicking her in the chest and abdomen.”
