AAP leaders being forced to run smear campaign against me, says Swati Maliwal

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal on Wednesday alleged that party leaders were being pressured to speak against her and do certain things to defame her. 

Maliwal took to X and said: “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, they have to break her by leaking her personal photos. It is being said that whoever supports her will be expelled from the party.”

Maliwal claimed that someone has been given the duty of doing press conferences 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,” she further said.

“You may raise an army of thousands, I will face it alone because the truth is with me,” she said in her X post.

“I am not angry with them (AAP leaders), 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,” she said.

“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!” the post concluded.

On May 18, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's close aide Bibhav Kumar was arrested in connection with the assault on Swati Maliwal and produced late at night before a local court which sent him to a five-day police custody.

Delhi Police registered a case against Kumar for molestation and attempted culpable homicide after he allegedly assaulted Maliwal at the Chief Minister's residence on May 13.

The FIR includes charges under sections 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide), 341 (wrongful restraint), 354(B) (assault or use of criminal force to woman with intent to disrobe), 506 (criminal intimidation), and 509 (word, gesture, or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman) of the Indian Penal Code at the Civil Lines police station.

--IANS

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