“His deafening silence speaks volumes”: Delhi Lt Governor slams Kejriwal over the Swati Maliwal assault Row

Amidst the raging political storm over the alleged Swati Maliwal assault case, Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena on Tuesday came out in support of the AAP Rajya Sabha MP. He stated that Arvind Kejriwal’s alleged “deafening silence” over the row “speaks volumes on his stance on the safety of women.” However, the Aam Aadmi Party has maintained its stance and said that VK Saxena coming out in support of Swati Maliwal only meant that Maliwal has been working at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party in an attempt to tarnish the image of Arvind Kejriwal and malign the party.

"I have been deeply distressed over the unfolding media narrative over the last few days on the issue of alleged assault on Swati Maliwal, MP, Aam Admi Party, at the residence of the Chief Minister when she went there to meet him all alone. Yesterday, she called me out of sheer anguish, describing at length her traumatic experience and the subsequent intimidation and shaming that she is being subjected to by her own colleagues. She also expressed concerns over reported tampering of evidence and coercion against her. Although Maliwal has been hostile, vociferous, and blatantly partisan to me and my office, often criticizing me unjustifiably, yet any physical violence and hounding, perpetrated on her are inexcusable and unacceptable,” said the Lieutenant Governor.

VK Saxena slammed Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and questioned his alleged assault case. “I would have expected that at least for the sake of propriety, my CM would have come clean, rather than being evasive and dodgy. His deafening silence speaks volumes of his stance on the safety of women,” said Saxena.

However, the Aam Aadmi Party said that Saxena’s statement only proves that Swati Maliwal has been working with the BJP. “LG's statement proves that Swati Maliwal is working for the BJP. The BJP is hatching a new conspiracy every day during elections - sometimes liquor scam, sometimes Swati Maliwal, sometimes false allegations of foreign funding. The BJP will use new tactics every day during elections. BJP is losing badly. Modi ji's sinking ship is taking support of Swati Maliwal," said AAP in a statement.

AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal has alleged that Arvind Kejriwal’s personal assistant Bibhav Kumar has physically assaulted her when she had gone to meet with the Chief Minister on May 13. In her FIR, Maliwal stated that she was repeatedly slapped and kicked in her stomach and pelvic region by Bibhav Kumar inside Kejriwal’s residence. Kumar has now been arrested by the police in connection to the same.

The Aam Aadmi Party has so far supported Bibhav Kumar, and asserted that Maliwal was working for BJP in an attempt to malign the image of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. After Kumar was arrested Kejriwal had called for a rally comprising of all the AAP leadership, marched to the BJP headquarters in Delhi, and challenged PM Modi’s alleged “Jail ka khel” aimed towards crushing the Aam Aadmi Party. “One after another, they (BJP) have been arresting our leaders. They have arrested me, Manish Sisodia, Satyendra Jain, and Sanjay Singh, all of them have been put behind bars, and today, they have arrested my personal assistant as well. Now, they are saying that Raghav Chadda, Saurav Bhardwaj as well Atishi will be arrested. I want to tell the Prime Minister that you are playing this ‘jail jail ka khel’… Tomorrow, I am coming to the BJP HQ with all my top leaders. You can put in jail whoever you want; you can put all of in jail together. You think by putting all AAP leaders behind bars, you will crush the party. You can try all you want, but, you will not be able to crush the Aam Admi Party in this way,” said Kejriwal.​