A Delhi court on Tuesday granted police three-day custody of Arvind Kejriwal’s personal secretary Bibhav Kumar, who has been accused of assaulting Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal.
Kumar was produced before Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal after the expiry of his four days of judicial custody. The court sent him to police custody till May 31.
"The presence of the accused in a room where NVRs (network video recorders) are installed is not denied by him or his lawyer. To the mind of this court, the reason for remaining there for a sufficient time is obviously a question which needs to be investigated for which custodial interrogation is necessary," the court said.
During the hearing, the Delhi Police had sought five-day custody of Kumar. Additional Public Prosecutor (APP) Atul Srivastava submitted that the accused formatted his mobile phone and refused to share the password.
"We need to take him to some places. We requested five days of police custody," the APP prayed.
Defence counsel Rajiv Mohan, opposing the remand application, said the alleged incident occurred on May 13, but there was no complaint for three days. The FIR was lodged on May 16 and accused was arrested on 18, he argued.
On Monday, Kumar's bail plea was dismissed by a sessions court, which said there appeared no "pre-meditation" by Maliwal in lodging the FIR and that her allegations could not be "swiped away".
Kumar was arrested on May 18. He was sent to police custody for five days on the same day by a magisterial court, which observed that his anticipatory bail plea had become infructuous because of his arrest. Last Friday, he was sent to four days' judicial custody.
