AAP row: Police took one month to file defamation FIR

The 28-year-old Aam Aadmi Party volunteer, at the heart of the latest controversy to hit the party, had complained with Delhi Police on March 31 that she was being linked with Kumar Vishwas on social media.

But it took police one month to convert her complaint into an FIR.Police on Monday claimed they took action over a defamation complaint filed by her after following the standard operating procedure in internet-related cases.

The department confessed that there was a delay in converting the complaint into a criminal case and attributed it to a delayed report from the cyber cell.

“The woman had approached Nand Nagri police station with her complaint on March 31. On being analysed, the complaint was found to be based on electronic transmission of data,” said a police officer.

 “It was then sent to the cyber cell and a report from the cell was given to the local police on April 29, following which the complaint was converted into a case,” the police officer added. The woman lives with her husband and two children in northeast Delhi’s Nand Nagri. It is alleged that she came across several pictures of herself with Vishwas on social media websites on March 30 with captions saying that they had recently been caught in an objectionable position by Vishwas’ wife.  These photographs are alleged to have been circulated by Mangesh Shete, Chhotelal Prajapati, S K Pradhan and Ravi Singh, who according to the Aam Aadmi Party, belong to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The woman told the media that she was shocked when she came across these pictures.

“When my husband found out, he turned me out of the house. He has threatened to leave me and this entire incident has destroyed my family life,” she said.

The woman claimed she first approached Nand Nagri police station, then the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime) and finally visited Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s residence in north Delhi’s Civil Lines for intervention.“But no one helped me,” she said.