Court sends Kejriwal aide Bibhav Kumar to 14 days judicial custody
New Delhi, May 31: A court here on Friday remanded Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's aide Bibhav Kumar, who has been accused of assaulting AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal, in judicial custody for 14 days.
Kumar, personal assistant to Kejriwal, allegedly assaulted Maliwal at the chief minister's official reidence on May 13.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gaurav Goyal allowed the Delhi Police’s plea seeking judicial custody for Kumar, who was produced before him on expiry of his three- day police custody.
Meanwhile, the Delhi High Court has reserved its order on maintainability of Kumar's plea challenging his arrest.
Earlier on Monday, Kumar's bail plea was dismissed by a sessions court which said there appeared to be 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 the same day by a magisterial court which observed that his anticipatory bail plea had become infructuous because of his arrest.
He was sent to four-day judicial custody last Friday.
The FIR against Kumar was registered on May 16 under various Indian Penal Code provisions, including for criminal intimidation, assault or criminal force on a woman with the intent to disrobe her and attempt to commit culpable homicide.
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Dalit outfits call state-wide hartal over dental student’s death
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Various Dalit organisations on Monday announced a state-wide hartal seeking justice in the death of Kannur Dental College student Nithin Raj.
The hartal will be observed on Tuesday from 6 am to 6 pm.
As many as 52 Dalit organisations, including Justice for Nithin Raj Action Council, have announced the strike.
Organisations requesting cooperation for the strike said that no vehicles will be forcibly stopped and that all essential services are exempted.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakkandy in Kannur district, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members on charges of abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations by the student’s family that he was subjected to caste- and complexion-based harassment.
Kerala Pinnokka Samudaya Munnani (KPSM), one of the organisations supporting the hartal, alleged in a statement that police had shown apathy in the investigation and were attempting to protect the accused in the case.
KPSM state president K V Padmanabhan and general secretary S Anwar alleged that the probe into Raj’s death was being deliberately misdirected and delayed.
While the family has firmly alleged that caste discrimination and mental harassment by faculty members led to the student’s death, police were attempting to divert the investigation towards loan app borrowings, they claimed.
The organisation alleged that this was a planned move to shield the real accused.
KPSM further alleged that by deliberately delaying the arrest of the accused teachers, police enabled them to secure anticipatory bail.
They said there was no confidence in the present police investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to an independent agency at the earliest.
