Delhi Congress Chief Arvinder Singh on Saturday demanded legal action against Law Minister Somnath Bharti for the incident involving foreign nationals at Khirki Extension in South Delhi.
“The Minister should be booked for leading a mob to catch foreign nationals and force the police to take action. Under what law can the Minister lead a mob to take ‘vigilante’ action? How can he enter anybody’s house without permission,” he said.
Mr. Singh, a former minister, also slammed Mr. Bharti for not following the rules while conducting his business as a Minister. “The rules are very clear. If a minister gets any specific information over an issue, he could have informed the secretary of the concerned department instead of himself going and conducting the raid,” he said.
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The Congress leader asserted that the State government needs to handle such issues in a more mature fashion as it can have international ramifications.
“We have learnt through reports that the remarks of the crowd were very racist. This government must not lose sight of the fact that such actions could affect India’s international relations. We must also not forget the fact that this is a country of Mahatma Gandhi who launched war against racism in Africa,” Mr. Singh said.
Mr. Bharti has been facing flak for his “vigilante” action on Wednesday night when he led a crowd of local residents and AAP volunteers, demanding the police to raid a particular house in the Khirki Extension area of his Assembly constituency, inhabited by women of African origin, alleging they were allegedly involved in prostitution and drug peddling.
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The Minister got into a spat with police officers on the spot after they refused to raid the house due to lack of a search warrant.