A court here on Saturday sent Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar to five days in police custody in connection with the alleged assault on AAP Rajya Sabha member Swati Maliwal. The Delhi Police arrested Kumar earlier in the day and his anticipatory bail plea was subsequently observed as becoming “infructuous” by a Delhi court.

Kumar was later produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal who sent him to five- day police custody. Police, through their counsel, had sought seven-day custody of Kumar to question him in connection with the assault case. It is alleged that Kumar, the personal assistant of Kejriwal, assaulted Maliwal at the CM’s residence on May 13 morning. The detailed order of the court is awaited Police told the court that Kumar’s custody was necessary for questioning him about reason of assault.

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. Police said before being formatted the data of a mobile phone has to be cloned and Kumar was required to be taken to Mumbai for retrieving the data. The accused’s presence was also needed when his mobile-phone is opened by an expert, they said.

Countering the arguments, Kumar’s counsel Rajiv Mohan said neither was there any record of Maliwal’s visit to the CM’s residence before May 13 nor did she clarify the reason for registering the FIR only on May 16. The FIR was registered at the Civil Lines police station. He said that Maliwal visited the CM’s residence without an appointment and that the Delhi Police was distorting facts.

The advocate said neither did Maliwal seek any medical aid after calling the emergency helpline number 112 nor did the station house officer prepare any medical sheet after meeting her. Mohan alleged that Maliwal was politicising the issue of having suffered injuries and was also giving statements to the media. He said that Kumar’s mobile-phone was not required for investigation as Maliwal had nowhere alleged about threatening on phone or WhatsApp calls. When the grounds of arrest are “not justified”, there is no question of police custody, the advocate had argued.

Another counsel for Kumar, Shadan Farasat, claimed that Kumar’s lawyers were not given a copy of the FIR, while it was circulated in the media. He claimed that Kumar was arrested solely to defeat the purpose of filing the anticipatory bail. In its rebuttal, the Delhi Police’s counsel said that according to the FIR, Maliwal was “in shock” after being assaulted and after recovering lodged the official complaint.

(With agency inputs)

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A man was injured in a firing incident that took place near a poll rally of Congress nominee Gurjit Singh Aujla, prompting the Punjab Chief Electoral Officer to seek a report from police in this regard.

According to police, five people fired gunshots. The incident has no connection with the election rally as it occurred away from the poll rally, they said.

Ajnala Station House Officer Balbir Singh said the victim has been identified as Lovely, who in a statement, said that he was going to attend Congress’ election rally when he was attacked around a hundred yards away from the rally venue. The five accused have already been identified as three were the residents of Ajnala village and rest two were outsiders, police said as they suspected it to be a case of personal enmity.

Police teams have been dispatched to nab the accused, the SHO said. Meanwhile, Punjab CEO Sibin C sought a report from the Director General of Police (DGP) on the firing incident in Ajnala.

Following a complaint by Congress party’s Amritsar candidate, Gurjit Singh Aujla, the CEO has written to the DGP asking him to submit a fact-based report at the earliest so that the Election Commission of India can be informed about it. A separate letter, the CEO has also sought an action taken report from the District Election Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Amritsar, asking him to immediately look into the matter.

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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)