Swati Maliwal slams AAP amid protest call outside BJP HQ: ‘Had Manish Sisodia been here…’

Swati Maliwal assault case: Swati Maliwal, an Aam Aadmi Party Rajya Sabha MP, on Sunday slammed the party, saying it was out on the street to “save the accused”, as Arvind Kejriwal, AAP MLAs and MPs marched to the Bharatiya Janata Party’s headquarters in Delhi to protest against the arrest of the chief minister aide Bibhav Kumar in an assault case.

Bibhav Kumar was picked up at the CM's residence and arrested in connection with the assault case on Saturday. He was later sent to a five-day police custody by Delhi's Tis Hazari Court. Follow live updates on Swati Maliwal News

“There was a time when we all came out on the streets to get justice for Nirbhaya. Today, after 12 years, we are out on the streets to save the accused who made the CCTV footage disappear and formatted the phone?” Swati Maliwal wrote in a post on X (formally Twitter) in Hindi.

“I wish we had made such as an effort for Manish Sisodia ji. If he had been here, maybe this wouldn’t have happened to me!” Swati Maliwal, who has alleged that Bibhav Kumar slapped her seven-eight times, “kicked on the chest, stomach and pelvis area”, said.

On Saturday, Arvind Kejriwal said he and other AAP leaders would go to the BJP headquarters on May 19 "so that the prime minister can send anyone he wishes to jail".

The BJP is saying they will send AAP MP Raghav Chadha, who had just returned from the UK, and Delhi ministers Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj to jail too, he claimed at a press briefing hours after his aide Bibhav Kumar was arrested in connection with the alleged assault on his party's parliamentarian Swati Maliwal.

On Saturday night, Swati Maliwal claimed that the CCTV camera footage of the May 13 incident where she was allegedly assaulted at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence has “disappeared” and edited videos were being released.

"First I was thrashed brutally by Bibhav. He slapped and kicked me. When I freed myself and called 112, he went outside, called security personnel and started making a video. I was shouting and telling the security that Bibhav has thrashed me brutally," Maliwal claimed.

"That long portion of the video has been edited. Only a 50-second video was released when I was fed up of telling the security.

"Now the phone has been formatted and the full video deleted? The CCTV footage has also disappeared. This is the height of conspiracy," she said in a post on X in Hindi.

(With inputs from agencies)