The case of the assault on Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) at the Chief Minister's residence continues to escalate. Recently, the Tis Hazari Court sent the accused, Vibhav Kumar, into five days of police custody. During Saturday's court session, shocking revelations were made about the CCTV footage from the incident appearing blank and missing critical moments.
Presenting the prosecution's arguments, Additional Public Prosecutor Atul Shrivastava informed the court, 'We requested the DVR; it was handed over in a pen drive...but the footage was found to be empty. The police have been given the iPhone, however, the accused is not sharing the password. The phone has been formatted.'
The prosecutor claimed that the accused Vibhav Kumar was present at the crime scene even today. Delhi Police suspects tampering with the CCTV footage. Meanwhile, Vibhav Kumar's lawyer, Rajeev Mohan, contested that even if the phone formatting claim is true, it has no relevance to the case.
Swati Maliwal's Chilling Account
In a post, Maliwal detailed her harrowing experience, 'First, Vibhav brutally beat me. He slapped and kicked me. When I managed to escape and dialed 112, I went outside, summoned security, and he started recording a video. I screamed at the security staff, telling them that Vibhav had assaulted me savagely. That entire long section of the video has been edited. Only 50 seconds were released, at which point I had already explained the situation to the security personnel in frustration. Now the phone is formatted, deleting the entire video? The CCTV footage is also missing! There's a limit to conspiracy!'
Source: aajtak
Formatted iPhone Raises Questions in Court
Let it be noted that Vibhav Kumar was presented before a magistrate's court on Saturday, where the police argued for his custody in order to interrogate the motivations behind the alleged attack on Maliwal. The police revealed to the court that Vibhav Kumar had not provided the password for his mobile phone and mentioned that the device had been formatted due to some malfunction in Mumbai.
The police stated that prior to formatting, the mobile phone's data should have been cloned, and there was a need to travel to Mumbai with Kumar to recover the data.
What Exactly Happened at CM Kejriwal's Residence on the Morning of May 13th?
According to the FIR filed by Swati Malival, she went to meet CM Arvind Kejriwal at his residence early in the morning. She first visited the CM's camp office. Later, she called Kejriwal's Personal Secretary Vibhav Kumar, but the call was not answered. She also sent a WhatsApp message to Vibhav's mobile number, but received no response. Subsequently, she entered Kejriwal's residence through the main door as usual.
Accusations of a Pitiless Assault
Malival was told to sit in the drawing-room and was informed that Chief Minister Kejriwal was at home and would come to meet her shortly. Before Kejriwal could arrive, his Personal Secretary Vibhav Kumar entered the room aggressively and without provocation, began to verbally abuse her. He then attacked her without any instigation and started to assault her. Maliwal recounts being slapped repeatedly around 7-8 times, which caused her to panic and scream for help. She managed to push Vibhav away with her feet.
