Swati Maliwal assault case: Delhi HC to hear Kejriwal aide Bibhav's plea challenging arrest

NEW DELHI: The Delhi high court on Monday agreed to hear petition filed by Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's close aide Bibhav Kumar challenging his arrest in Swati Maliwal assault case.

Bibhav Kumar was arrested by Delhi Police on May 18 in relation to an assault case filed by Rajya Sabha MP Maliwal.

"The investigation is still at the nascent stage and the apprehension of influencing the witnesses or tampering with the evidence cannot be ruled out. Keeping in view the allegations made against the applicant, at this stage, no ground for bail is made out," the trial court said.

"The allegations raised by the victim have to be taken on their face value and cannot be swiped away. The mere delay in registering the FIR would not have much impact on the case as the injuries are apparent in the MLC after four days. There seems to be no pre-meditation on the part of the victim as if it would have been so, then the FIR would have been registered on the same day," it added.

"This order is capable of being revised, he can file a revision application and there is a 90-day period for that...but they have skipped this step and directly approached here," stated Sanjay Jain appearing for Delhi Police.