'Irony Died A Thousand Deaths': Swati Maliwal After Kejriwal Breaks Silence on Assaultgate

New Delhi: ‘Irony died a thousand deaths’, tweeted Swati Maliwal, former DCW chairperson and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP, soon after the Delhi Chief Minister broke his silence on the assaultgate. Earlier today, in an interview with the news agency PTI, Kejriwal responded to the issue for the first time since it happened on May 13. "I expect there will be a fair investigation. Justice should be served. There are two versions of the event. Police should investigate both versions fairly and justice should be done," Kejriwal said, clarifying that he was not present at the scene when the assault reportedly happened.  

How Swati Maliwal Reacted to Kejriwal's Statement  

“After unleashing the entire army of leaders and volunteers at me, calling me a BJP agent, assassinating my character, leaking edited videos, victim shaming me, roaming around with the accused, letting him re enter the crime scene and tamper evidence and protesting in favour of the accused, the Chief Minister, in whose 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”, tweeted former DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal. 

What Maliwal Has Alleged?

For the unversed, Maliwal has alleged she was ‘assaulted’ by Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar when she went to meet the chief minister on May 13. The police have registered a case and arrested Kumar in connection with it. Kumar is currently in five-day police custody in connection with the case.

Maliwal has also alleged that there is a "lot of pressure" on everyone in the party to malign her. "Yesterday I got a call from a big leader of the party. They told me how there is a lot of pressure on everyone, they have to say bad things about Swati, and they have to break her by leaking her personal photos. It is being said that anyone who supports her will be expelled from the party," the Rajya Sabha MP said in a post on X.

"Someone has got the duty of doing press conferences and someone has got the duty of tweeting. It is someone's duty to call the volunteers sitting in America and get something out against me," she added.

Bibhav Kumar Taken to Mumbai

On Tuesday, Kumar was taken to Mumbai for the discovery of data from his phone which he had allegedly formatted before his arrest. Police suspect Kumar formatted his phone after transferring its data to some person or device in Mumbai. Kumar's phones and laptop as well as CCTV recordings from Kejriwal's house have been sent for forensic examination, an officer said. As Kumar's police custody is ending on Thursday, investigators are trying to collect all evidence related to the case, he said.