CCTV footage of assault incident has disappeared, claims Maliwal

PTI, May 19, 2024, 8:58 AM IST

New Delhi: AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Saturday night claimed that the CCTV 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.

Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar was picked up at the CM’s residence and arrested in connection with the assault case on Saturday.

“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.

Kumar was on Saturday produced before a magisterial court here, with police contending that his custody was necessary for questioning him about the reason behind the alleged assault on Maliwal.

They said Kumar did not provide the password of his mobile phone to the investigating agency and had also informed that his phone had been formatted in Mumbai due to some malfunctioning in the device.

The police said before being formatted, the data of a mobile phone had to be cloned, and Kumar was required to be taken to Mumbai to retrieve the data.

The presence of the accused was also needed when an expert accesses his mobile-phone, they said.