Swati Maliwal assault case: Police seized CCTV DVR from Kejriwal home, planting stories to tarnish party's image, says AAP

NEW DELHI: AAP on Sunday said the Delhi Police has seized the DVR of CCTV cameras installed inside Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence in connection with its probe into the "assault" on Swati Maliwal and accused the investigators of planting stories to tarnish the party's image ahead of the elections.

There was no immediate reaction from the Delhi Police.

Maliwal, an AAP Rajya Sabha member, has alleged that Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar assaulted her on May 13 when she had gone to the chief minister's residence to meet him.

AAP has rubbished her allegations and claimed that Maliwal is acting at the behest of the BJP to frame Kejriwal. Kumar was arrested on Saturday and produced in a court, which remanded him in five-day police custody.

Addressing a press conference on Sunday, AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj said the police have already seized the DVR (digital video recorder) of CCTV cameras.

"Yesterday (Saturday), they seized the DVR of cameras installed at the entry gates, boundary walls and today (Sunday), they seized the DVR of cameras installed in other parts of the house. The police are planting stories that the CCTV (camera) footage has been deleted but they have already seized it," he claimed.

Bharadwaj said the CCTV cameras and the footage captured are maintained by the Public Works department and are in its custody.

He also raised questions over the sequence of events in the case.

"The call was made by Swati Maliwal on May 13 and, within no time, the image of the daily diary entry in the matter was all over the media. The FIR in the case has been registered under Section 354 (B), which is a sensitive matter that pertains to a woman, but the FIR was circulated everywhere. However, Bibhav Kumar, the accused, and AAP did not have a copy of the FIR," he added.

The Delhi Police has booked Kumar for molestation and attempted culpable homicide after Maliwal's complaint.

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Bharadwaj also responded to allegations that the CCTV camera footage has been deleted.

"The incident happened in the drawing room. One usually does not install cameras there. I have never seen a CCTV camera. When a camera is not there, how can its footage be deleted? The police have everything with them and if they would have seen anything they would have shared it with the media," the Delhi minister said.

"The police are planting stories at the behest of the BJP to tarnish the image of AAP before the elections," he alleged.

Polling for Delhi's seven Lok Sabha seats will be held on May 25.

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