Fact Check: Unrelated Video Falsely Linked to Swati Maliwal Assault

A video of a fight at the Tis Hazari Court mediation center in Delhi is going viral with a false claim that it shows the claimed attack on Swati Maliwal, a member of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).

Maliwal’s lawsuit says that on May 13, 2024, she was attacked by Bibhav Kumar, who works for Kejriwal, inside the CM’s home. Kumar has rejected the claim and written to the Delhi Police to ask them to file a FIR on his behalf. The Indian Express says that Kumar was caught by the Delhi police on May 18, 2024, and will be brought before Tis Hazari Court.

A 49-second video with the caption, “Scene from Delhi CM’s official residence Sheesh Mahal @SwatiJaiHind, You should also see how the fight happened in #DelhiCMResidence. This was bound to happen; Kejriwal’s PA beat up Swati Maliwal. News is coming in that there is heavy kicking going on in the CMO. The reason given is that Swati, Marlona, and Sanjay all want to become CM, and Kejriwal wants to make his Rabri the Chief Minister. There is still a lot of fighting to be done.”

FACT-CHECK

The video that went viral was actually from a fight at the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Center in Delhi. It does not show the claimed attack on Maliwal.

We took parts of the video and used Google to do a reverse image search. The results showed several posts on Instagram and X. The posts said that the video that went popular was from an incident at the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Center in Delhi.

A number of lawyers also said they were at the Tis Hazari Court Mediation Center when the fight started.

Also, we found a blog post from April 2024 that was shot at Tis Hazari Court. The pictures on the blog fit the room in the viral video, so we know for sure where it was shot (the 1.52 minute timestamp shows this).

We also found several posts with the viral video from May 12, 2024, which is before the case of Swati Maliwal’s attack that was reported in the morning of May 13, 2024.

It was posted on May 12, 2024, by the account @iAtulKrishan1 with the title “Clash/Full drama.” There is a video from Delhi’s Tis Hazari court that shows family members fighting in the settlement room. They came to settle their differences, but they ended up fighting.