A view of the Supreme Court of India.
Credit: PTI Photo
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday directed the Delhi Police to file its detailed response by August 21 on a plea of Arvind Kejriwal's close aide Bibhav Kumar for grant of bail in a case related to alleged assault of AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal inside the Chief Minister's official residence.
A bench of Justices Surya Kant, Ujjal Bhuyan and Dipankar Dutta, fixed the matter for further hearing on August 27 as Additional Solicitor General S V Raju for the police sought time to file a counter affidavit.
Senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi, appearing for Kumar, said that the charge sheet has already been filed, which was the "best counter".
The court, however, gave time to police to file the counter affidavit on or before August 21 and rejoinder, if any by Kumar by August 24.
On August 1, the Supreme Court had chided Kumar saying it was shocked with the incident at the Delhi Chief Minister's official residence. The court had also observed that petitioner Kumar does not seem to be ashamed of the incident and "power has gone into his head".
"Is CM's residence a private bungalow? Is this kind of goon supposed to work in the CM's residence?" the bench had asked.
Kumar is alleged to have assaulted Maliwal on May 13 at Kejriwal's official residence here.
He was apprehended on May 18 after the FIR was registered against him on May 16 under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code, including those related to criminal intimidation, assault or using criminal force on a woman with the intent to disrobe and attempt to commit culpable homicide.
Kumar questioned the Delhi High Court's order of July 12 dismissing his bail plea as the possibility of him influencing the witness or tampering with evidence could not be ruled out.