New Delhi: The BJP on Sunday said Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal should not indulge in theatrics and instead break his “silence” on the alleged assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal by his aide Bibhav Kumar.
The reaction came after Kejriwal led a massive Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) protest near the BJP headquarters here against Kumar’s arrest in connection with the incident.
Maliwal has accused Kumar of assaulting her on May 13 when she went to the chief minister’s residence. The AAP has trashed the charge and claimed that Maliwal is acting at the behest of the BJP to frame Kejriwal in a false case.
“Kejriwal should break his silence instead of his ‘dramebazi (theatrics)’ and answer specific questions,” Shehzad Poonawalla, the national spokesperson of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said in a post on X.
He asked Kejriwal if he had ordered the “attack” on Maliwal at the chief minister’s residence and gave patronage to Kumar because he knows his “dark secrets”.
“Why is the CCTV (camera) footage missing? Did Kejriwal help Bibhav to destroy/tamper evidence, including CCTV (camera) footage from Shoshan Mahal (Kejriwal’s residence)? Why release small clips and not full CCTV (camera) footage?” Poonawalla asked.
“Why U turn from what Sanjay Singh said 96 hours ago and why victim-shaming now by AAP?” he asked on the microblogging platform.
Addressing a press conference at the BJP headquarters, party MP Manoj Tiwari, who is seeking re-election from North East Delhi, alleged that Kejriwal held the protest to protect Kumar.
“Why is Kejriwal not saying anything on the Maliwal case and speaking in favour of Bibhav Kumar, who is accused of beating her up? Why is he trying to save Bibhav Kumar? What is his compulsion?
“Protesting in favour of a person who has beaten up a woman. What cheap thinking. Everyone in Delhi is surprised and shocked,” Tiwari said.
He said the people of Delhi want answers to questions on the alleged assault on the former Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson and wondered if Kejriwal has come out of prison on interim bail to do such things.
“The Supreme Court did not grant him (regular) bail. It (Supreme Court) wrote on his (Kejriwal) forehead that he is outright corrupt. There is a lot of proof against him. Yet he got 20 days’ time, which is becoming a subject of controversy. Many people are asking why such treatment (was meted out to him),” the BJP leader said.
Kejriwal was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on March 21 in a money-laundering case linked to the alleged liquor scam in Delhi. The apex court has granted interim bail to the AAP leader till June 1, the last day of the seven-phase Lok Sabha election, and asked him to surrender and go back to jail on June 2.
Tiwari said according to her medical report, Maliwal suffered serious injuries and sought to counter the AAP’s allegation that the BJP has come out in her support for political reasons.
The BJP is speaking for Maliwal because she is a woman and the party cannot be a mute spectator to atrocities against women, he said, accusing the AAP of levelling baseless allegations against the saffron party’s involvement in the matter.
Tiwari alleged that Kejriwal’s “criminal face” has come out in the open with the “assault” on Maliwal and said the strictest action should be taken against those involved in the case.
Shazia Ilmi, another BJP spokesperson, also flayed Kejriwal over the alleged assault on Maliwal and claimed that the AAP’s protest against Kumar’s arrest “fizzled out”.
The Kejriwal-led party should be renamed as “Aam Apradhi Party”, she said.
“It is very unfortunate that he (Kejriwal) neither came out for (former Delhi deputy chief minister) Manish Sisodia nor for (former Delhi minister) Satyendra Jain (both in jail). He has taken to the streets to protect someone who is accused of assaulting a woman. It is a different matter that the protest fizzled out,” Ilmi said.
She accused the AAP of releasing selective footage of Kejriwal’s residence to show that Maliwal was not assaulted and claimed that the remaining CCTV footage was deleted.
“The AAP has become synonymous with the dirty-fix department. They have released edited CCTV footage. Bibhav Kumar re-formatted his mobile phone on May 14 itself and deleted all information,” the BJP leader claimed.
Slamming AAP leader and Delhi minister Atishi for alleging the BJP’s involvement in the case, Ilmi said, “She is lying.”
She also dared Atishi to present proof in support of her allegation.
Taking a swipe at Kejriwal over his allegation that the BJP has launched “Operation Jhadoo” to finish off his party, Ilmi said, “Operation Jhadoo (the AAP’s poll symbol) will now take place on Operation Daru”, in an apparent reference to the alleged Delhi liquor scam.
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