Kejriwal aide Bibhav sent in 4-day judicial custody

A Delhi court on Friday sent Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s close aide Bibhav Kumar to four-day judicial custody in connection with the alleged assault on AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal. Kumar, the personal assistant to Kejriwal, allegedly assaulted Maliwal at the chief minister’s official residence on May 13.

He has been under police custody since Saturday.

Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal allowed the prosecution’s plea seeking Kumar’s judicial custody for four days. In their remand application, the Delhi Police, who arrested Kumar on May 18, said electronic, scientific and medical evidence along with statements of witnesses have been collected during the investigation.

“That the recovered network video recorders (NVRs) stated to contain relevant materials concerning the present case have been seized as per the procedure and have been sent for examination, opinion, and analysis by the forensic experts, which is awaited and expected to be received within the shortest possible time,” the application said. It claimed Kumar was not cooperating in the investigation, was evasive in his replies and did not disclose his mobile phone password. The city police said the team investigating the case was in Mumbai and was likely to return soon.

It said the accused has to be confronted with the evidence gathered from Mumbai and the NVRs. Kumar’s counsel moved an application seeking a copy of the CCTV footage collected from Kejriwal’s residence of the day when Maliwal was allegedly assaulted.