MillenniumPost
Delhi

ACB raids DCW office, Maliwal says won’t be scared

Kejriwal has alleged the involvement of PM Modi behind the raid. “Modiji did not spare even the DCW, which is doing such commendable work. Modiji has done a very bad thing,” Kejriwal tweeted. 

Kejriwal was responding to a series of tweets posted by DCW chairperson Swati Maliwal, expressing shock over the raids. Maliwal is a former member of Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and was heading the Public Grievance (PG) Cell at the CM’s office before her appointment as the DCW chairperson. 

The ACB carried out searches at the DCW office in Vikas Bhavan on Thursday morning, after complaints were filed by former chief of the commission, Barkha Shukla Singh, and former Delhi Chief Secretary Omesh Sehgal.  

Singh had alleged illegal recruitment by Maliwal in DCW, while Sehgal’s case is related to a sexual harassment complaint. Singh also claimed that several AAP supporters were given plum posts in the women’s panel, an allegation strongly denied by Maliwal.

Singh, who was Maliwal’s predecessor and a former Congress MLA who headed the panel for nine years till 2015, had filed a complaint with the ACB, alleging “nepotism and favouritism” by the latter in appointing people at the DCW.

However, Maliwal has said she will be not “be scared or silenced.” She alleged that Singh had resolved only one case in nine years and she had withdrawn her salary both as an MLA as well as the DCW chief. “While in the past five months, I resolved 400 cases and recommended at least 50 cases and visited at 50 places,” she said.

“We are the only one raising issues regarding increasing child rapes, high-level committee, victim compensation fund, etc, with the government. Is  that our fault?” Maliwal questioned. 

She added that three acid attack victims, two orphans from Nari Niketan and several victims were appointed at the women’s panel. Maliwal asserted that all due processes was followed in the appointments. 

“It is not enough that the DCW is working even on Saturdays. We are receiving at least 500 calls per day. Our department deputed 22 vehicles in city and 22 lawyers have been recruited to settle for family disputes,” she added. She even defended the appointment of AAP leader HS Phulka’s daughter, Prabhsahay Kaur, as a legal counsel for DCW, saying, “We are all somebody’s daughter. 

What’s important is that she is a competent lawyer and a member of the MCD standing council. All procedures have been followed in hiring these people.” Maliwal asserted that the DCW would continue working for the uplift of women. “The ACB is free to interrogate, question and arrest,” she said.

“If ACB n bosses feel that I will be scared n silenced through this, dey are wrong,” she tweeted, also alleging in a series of tweets that she is being targeted for doing her job.    “DCW will continue working for women. ACB is free to interrogate, question and arrest. Happy Rakshabandhan to all,” she said.

In another complaint, the former Chief Secretary had alleged that Maliwal was misusing her official position by issuing a show-cause notice to a club, of which he was a member.

A woman had claimed that Sehgal had harassed her by bumping into her in the club’s pool. She had claimed that she and her husband were suspended from the club after they filed an FIR against Sehgal. The DCW had sought a reply from the club on the suspension of the couple’s membership and the its failure to forward the woman’s complaint to the local complaints committee.

Meanwhile, officials  at the ACB claimed that they had intimated the DCW about their visit to collect certain documents regarding the complaints. Maliwal said that the ACB quizzed DCW staff at least for four hours and Maliwal’s colleagues tied rakhi to ACB officers.

Next Story
Share it