The Supreme Court on Thursday came down heavily on Bibhav Kumar, the aide of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, accused of assaulting AAP MP Swati Maliwal, and questioned his conduct. The court took note of the assault, saying it was "shocked" and that a "goon" had entered Kejriwal's residence and assaulted Maliwal.
A three-judge bench of Justices Surya Kant, Dipankar Datta and Ujjal Bhuyan was hearing the bail plea filed by Kumar challenging the Delhi High Court's recent order that denied him bail in the case. In May, a magisterial court in Delhi dismissed his bail plea.
"Is the Chief Minister's bungalow a private residence? Is that office required to keep such goons? Is this the way it is? We are shocked. The question is how this happened," the bench said.
The bench said that Maliwal had asked Kumar to stop attacking her but the latter continued.
Pulling up Kumar for his conduct, the Supreme Court said, "What does he think (of himself)? Does he have power in his head? You made it look as if a goon had entered the premises. Does Bibhav Kumar have any shame in doing this? Swati Maliwal is a young woman."
"You were the former secretary, if the victim had no right to stay there, you had no right to stay there. Do you think anyone present in that room would have had the guts to say anything against Bibhav?" it added.
Kumar is accused of assaulting Maliwal at the Chief Minister's residence in Delhi on May 13.
Kumar had stated before the high court that he had already suffered undue incarceration and had been in custody for more than 25 days. He had claimed in his plea that Maliwal’s alleged injuries were belied by the medico-legal case report, which does not corroborate her version.
