New Delhi, May 17 (UNI) Stepping up its attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the Swati Maliwal alleged assault case, the BJP on Friday termed the treatment meted out by the Aam Aadmi Party to one of their own as “shameful and shocking” as it questioned the CM’s silence on the episode.
Maliwal is AAP’s Rajya Sabha member and headed the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW).
Demanding an “apology” from Kejriwal, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman addressing a news conference here, said, “If a woman MP is not safe in the CM residence, then what about women security in Delhi?”
“”There cannot be any whataboutery. This happened inside Arvind Kejriwal’s residence while he was present (and) by his right-hand man,” she thundered.
Lashing out at the AAP notional convenor terming his response in the entire episode as shocking, Sitharaman said: “Swati Maliwal did not register a complaint with the police for three-four days after the incident, it means that there was pressure on her from high-level.”
Sitharaman said, “Since May 13, the CM has not once spoken even a single word on the act of violence by his PA against his own party’s Rajya Sabha female member. It is unbelievable and unacceptable.”
She questioned, how Kejriwal managed to mute himself and “did not even say a word about it” when his party’s female member who was the chief of the Delhi Commission for Women was assaulted.
She slammed the Delhi CM for “shamelessly” moving around with Bibhav Kumar (Kejriwal’s aide, and main accused in the alleged assault) at a joint opposition press conference in Lucknow this week.
“When the first Women’s Reservation Bill was passed in the new Parliament building, AAP leader Sanjay Singh said ‘Mahila Bewakuf Banao Bill’. Today, who is making fools of women?
It’s not the BJP. Our party has two Lok Sabha candidates from Delhi — Bansuri Swaraj and Kamaljeet Sehrawat. Whereas, AAP does not have a single female candidate in Delhi,” she said.
On Thursday, the Delhi Police registered an FIR in connection with the alleged assault case after Maliwal filed a police complaint.
Bibhav Kumar who is Kejriwal’s private secretary has been named as an accused.
The FIR was registered after Maliwal’s statement was recorded by a Delhi Police team at the Rajya Sabha member’s residence.
