"Irony died a thousand deaths...": Swati Maliwal slams Arvind Kejriwal amid assault row

New Delhi [India], May 22 : In a veiled attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal said that it was ironic that the person who had "assassinated her character" and called her a "BJP agent" was now calling for a free and fair investigation.
Maliwal had earlier this month lodged a complaint against Delhi Chief Minister's aide Bibhav Kumar accusing him of assaulting her at the CM's residence.
"After unleashing the entire army of leaders and volunteers at me, calling me a BJP agent, assassinating my character, leaking edited videos, victim shaming me, roaming around with the accused, letting him re-enter the crime scene and tamper evidences and protesting in favour of the accused, the Chief Minister, in whose drawing-room I was beaten up, has finally said that he wants free and fair investigation in the matter," Swati Maliwal posted on X.
"Irony died a thousand deaths. I don't buy this one bit," she added.
Earlier, Swati Maliwal claimed that she received a call from a senior leader of the party and he revealed there is "a lot of pressure to speak dirty things."
In a post on X, Maliwal further claimed that the party is pressuring its members to leak her photos.
"Yesterday, I got a call from a senior leader of the party. He told me how there is a lot of pressure on everyone, they have to speak dirty things against Swati, and they have to break her by leaking her personal photos. It is being said that whoever supports her will be expelled from the party. Someone has been given the duty of doing PC and someone else has been given the duty of tweeting. Someone's duty is to call volunteers sitting in America and get something out against me. Some beat reporters close to the accused have the duty of preparing some fake sting operations," Maliwal said in a post on Wednesday.
Maliwal also criticised Delhi Minister and AAP leader Atishi without naming her and called it "sad" that the latter is "smilingly maligning the character" of an "old female colleague."
"You may raise an army of thousands, I will face it alone because the truth is with me. I am not angry with them, the accused is a very powerful man. Even the biggest leaders are afraid of him. No one has the courage to take a stand against him. I don't even expect anything from anyone. I feel sad that the woman minister of Delhi is smilingly maligning the character of an old female colleague of the party," the former Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief said.
She further reiterated her will to continue her "fight for self-respect." "I have started a fight for my self-respect, I will continue to fight until I get justice. I am completely alone in this fight but I will not give up!" Maliwal stated.
A case was filed against Bibhav Kumar and a Special Investigation Team (SIT) was formed to investigate the case based on Maliwal's complaint. Bibhav was arrested by the Delhi Police on Sunday, May 19 and is currently in police custody till May 23.
Bibhav lodged a counter-complaint against Maliwal accusing her of forced and illegal entry into the CM's entrance.
Earlier in the day, Delhi Police brought Bibhav Kumar back to Delhi from Mumbai. In Mumbai, Bibhav Kumar was taken to three locations by Delhi Police, his phone location was tracked in all three spots. Statements of a few people have been recorded by the Police.
Delhi Police had earlier mentioned in the Tis Hazari Court that they would take Kumar to Mumbai to the place where he had allegedly formatted his phone.
The assault case row surfaced days ahead of polling in the national capital which is scheduled to take place on May 25 in the sixth phase.
Voting in seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi will be held on May 25. The counting of the votes will be done on June 4. As part of the seat-sharing arrangement, the Congress is contesting three seats while AAP has fielded candidates from four constituencies in Delhi.