delhi high court
– Photo : Amar Ujala
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The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Delhi Police seeking a reply on the bail plea of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar. Bibhav Kumar was arrested for allegedly attacking AAP’s Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal. A vacation bench of Justice Amit Sharma has asked the Delhi Police to file a status report. The court has fixed the hearing of the case on July 1. Bibhav Kumar had filed a petition for regular bail in the case on June 12.
Bibhav Kumar is currently in judicial custody, he was denied bail by the trial court on June 7. The court had said that the allegations levelled against him are serious and there is a possibility that he may influence the witnesses. Bibhav Kumar has said in his bail plea before the High Court that the trial court failed to consider that his further custody is not required, as the investigating officer had collected all the evidence and recorded the statements of witnesses. While passing the bail rejection order, the Additional Sessions Judge failed to consider the fact that all the evidence relating to the above FIR has been collected by the IO and the statements of witnesses have also been recorded, hence the custody of the petitioner is not required and no useful purpose would be served by keeping the petitioner in judicial custody.
Maliwal had accused him of physically assaulting her at the CM residence on May 13 and Kumar was arrested on May 18. According to the FIR, Kumar slapped her repeatedly and kicked her in the stomach. Following the complaint, the police registered an FIR against Kumar under sections 354, 506, 509 and 323, which deal with offences such as assault or use of criminal force on a woman with intent to outrage her modesty, and criminal intimidation.
