Swati Maliwal's 'irony died' dig as Kejriwal breaks silence on assault row

AAP MP Swati Maliwal's allegations so far were against the party and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar. But on Wednesday after Kejriwal made his first comment on the assault issue, Swati Maliwal hit him back and said irony died a thousand deaths. Kejriwal in an interview with news agency PTI said he wanted a fair investigation and justice in the Swati Maliwal assault case as it has two versions.

Maliwal hit back at Kejriwal and accused Kejriwal of "unleashing the entire army of leaders and volunteers" at her, calling her a BJP agent, assassinating her character, leaking edited videos, victim-shaming her. In her X post, the AAP Rajya Sabha MP mentioned that Kejriwal continued to roam around the accused, let him (Bibhav) re-enter the crime scene and tamper with evidence. "...the chief minister in worse drawing room I was beaten up has finally said that he wants free and fair investigation in the matter. Irony died a thousand deaths. I don't buy this one bit," Maliwal wrote.

Kejriwal spoke for the first time on the incident which has taken the centrestage before Delhi votes on May 25. On May 13, Swati Maliwal called the Delhi Police control room from Kejriwal's residence alleging that she was assaulted. After maintaining silence for two days after the incident, Maliwal filed an FIR against Bibhav in which she detailed how she was slapped, kicked, beaten up by Bibhav as she went to the CM's residence to meet Kejriwal. The party denied the allegations and cited videos in which Swati Maliwal could be seen shouting at Kejriwal's security, walking out of the residence with the security with no injury etc.

Bibhav was arrested from CM's residence and the police alleged that he tampered with the CCTV footage. Police took him to Mumbai where they claimed Bibhav formatted his phone.

Swati Maliwal, meanwhile, made another grave charge against the party that AAP leaders were being pressured to leak Swati's personal photos.

"Yesterday, I got a call from a senior leader of the party. He told me how there is a lot of pressure on everyone, they have to speak dirty things against Swati, and they have to break her by leaking her personal photos. It is being said that whoever supports her will be expelled from the party. Someone has been given the duty of doing PC and someone else has been given the duty of tweeting. Someone's duty is to call volunteers sitting in America and get something out against me. Some beat reporters close to the accused have the duty of preparing some fake sting operations," Swati wrote in a post.