An unrelated video is shared as visuals of assault on AAP MP Swati Maliwal at Delhi CMO by Kejriwal’s PA - FACTLY
Sai Krishna Muthyanolla
May 16, 2024
Several posts (here, here, and here) accompanying a video showing a scuffle involving a few men and women inside what appears to be an office are being widely shared across social media platforms. The claim accompanying the video alleges that it shows Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Member of Parliament and former chairperson of the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW), Swati Maliwal, being assaulted inside the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) by CM Arvind Kejriwal’s assistant. In this article, let’s fact-check the claim made in these posts.
Claim: Visuals of AAP MP Swati Maliwal being assaulted inside the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) by Arvind Kejriwal’s personal assistant.
Fact: The visuals in this viral video show a recent brawl that occurred at the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Center in Delhi. However, according to several reports, Kejriwal’s aide Bibhav Kumar misbehaved with AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal while she was waiting to meet Delhi CM Kejriwal at his residence in Delhi on 13 May 2024. Hence the claim made in the post is MISLEADING.
According to media reports (here, here & here), Swati Maliwal complained about being attacked by Kejriwal’s aide, Bibhav Kumar, on the morning of 13 May 2024, inside Kejriwal’s residence. She posted on X that she had given a statement to the police on 16 May 2024. On 14 May 2024, AAP MP Sanjay Singh, in a press statement, admitted that an aide of Kejriwal behaved inappropriately with Swati Maliwal while she was waiting to meet Kejriwal at his residence in Delhi on 13 May 2024. He also mentioned that Kejriwal has taken cognizance of the matter and will take appropriate action.
To learn more about this viral video, we conducted a Google reverse image search using keyframes from the video. This search led us to several posts on X and Instagram featuring the same viral video, alleging that the fight occurred at Tis Hazari Court in Delhi (here, here, here and here) (archived links here, here, and here). Additionally, the Marathi News agency ‘Lokmat Times’ shared the video (archived link), stating that the incident took place in the mediation room of Tis Hazari Court in Delhi.
Tis Hazari Court lawyers and court reporters confirmed to ‘ The Quint ‘ that the video is of a brawl at the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Centre, Delhi.
We subsequently found a video of the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Center on YouTube and compared its visuals with those of the viral video. Upon comparison, we observed that the visuals of the room in the viral video matched those of the Tis Hazari Mediation Center. Based on this, we can confirm that the viral video shows a clash at the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Center in Delhi.
To sum up, an unrelated video is being falsely shared as a video of AAP MP Swati Maliwal being assaulted by Kejriwal’s PA at Delhi CMO.