Swati Maliwal issues first response after corruption accusations; vows to 'keep fighting'

Swati Maliwal has issued her first response after a Delhi Court pressed corruption charges against her over alleged illegal appointments of her acquaintances. Taking to Twitter, she enlisted the work she did as the chairperson of the Delhi Commission For Women (DCW). She also opined why she is being targeted and vowed to 'keep fighting'. 

"Those who work honestly have to prove their honesty and thieves enjoy in the country", Maliwal wrote in her tweet. "Handled lakhs of cases, saved hundreds of girls from trafficking, got liquor-drug mafia arrested, stood with the poor. This is my only crime. As long as I am alive, I will keep fighting".

Maliwal has been charged under section 120B of the Indian Penal Code and for other offences under sections 13(1)(d), 13(1)(2), and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly appointing her favourites, including members of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) into the DCW between August 6, 2015, to August 1, 2016.

Court's ruling 

Delhi's Rouse Avenue Court cited "strong suspicion" over Maliwal's actions to press the charges against her. Apart from her, Promila Gupta, Sarika Chaudhary, and Farheen Malick have also been named as the accused and are pressed with the same aforementioned charges. 

"The discussion as above also prima facie indicates that most of the appointments were given to the nearest & dear ones of the accused persons/AAP party. Thus, it cannot be claimed by the accused persons that they did not abuse their position in order to obtain pecuniary advantages for other persons i.e. the persons so appointed, or that prima facie there was no dishonest intention", the Court observed. "A public servant, causing wrongful loss to the government by benefitting a third party would squarely fall within the definition of Section(1)(d)". 

It further said that the women's rights body had no right to make arbitrary appointments just because the DCW had been pursuing the Delhi Government to fill up the vacant posts.