Kejriwal silent as cops reach Maliwal’s house; NCW steps in

New Delhi : A Delhi Police team reached Aam Aadmi Party MP Swati Maliwal’s house on Thursday in connection with the alleged assault on her at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence, officials said.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party chief Kejriwal refused to comment on the issue at a joint press conference on Thursday where Akhilesh Yadav said there are ‘more important things’ to discuss.

The National Commission of Women (NCW) also issued summons to Kejriwal’s aide over the allegations of assault. The hearing of Bhibhav Kumar is scheduled for Friday at 11 am, according to the summon.

The NCW took suo moto cognisance of a media post titled ‘Ex-DCW chief Swati Maliwal accuses Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary of assaulting her’, where she claimed that she was brutally assaulted at the chief minister’s residence by Bhibhav Kumar, Kejriwal’s private secretary. In light of these accusations, the commission issued a notice, emphasising that failure to comply could result in further actions as deemed necessary by them.

Later on Thursday, led by an Additional Commissioner of Police (ACP) rank officer, a police team went to Maliwal’s residence in New Delhi to seek details of the incident, officials said.

On Monday morning, Maliwal went to the Civil Lines police station in New Delhi and alleged that a member of Kejriwal’s personal staff ‘assaulted’ her at the chief minister’s official residence, police officials said. Police have not yet received a formal complaint.

In Lucknow, AAP leader Sanjay Singh, also present at the press conference, said there should be no politics on the issue.

He then targeted the Bharatiya Janata Party government and raised the issue of a Manipuri woman being paraded naked, the Prajwal Revanna sex scandal and Maliwal being ‘beaten’ up by police during protests by wrestlers when she was the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief.

When Kejriwal was asked a question over the alleged assault on Maliwal, Yadav took the microphone, and said, “There are more important things than that.”

He hen unfolded a piece of paper and said, “BJP people are not with anyone, it is a ‘gang’ that lodges false cases.”

Sanjay Singh then took the microphone from the SP chief, and said the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi should answer for atrocities against women during the party rule.

“The entire country is sad till date that wife of a Kargil veteran was paraded naked in Manipur and the PM of India remained silent. Prajwal Revanna raped thousands of women and he was allowed to flee from the country by the BJP,” he alleged.