Delhi Police filed a supplementary chargesheet on Saturday against AAP MLA and former Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti in a case of allegedly barging into the flat of African women, criminally intimidating them, and outraging their modesty at Khirki Extension in Malviya Nagar at midnight in January last year.
Mr. Bharti is at present in police custody in an attempt-to-murder case lodged by his estranged wife Lipika Mitra this year.
Through the supplementary chargesheet, the police informed Metropolitan Magistrate Ankit Lal that the competent authority had given its sanction for prosecution of Mr. Bharti in the case.
The investigating officer also submitted a forensic test lab report in connection with the case.
The court later fixed October 30 as the date for further proceedings in the case.
The police had, last year, chargesheeted Mr. Bharti and 17 other accused under various Sections of the Indian Penal Code, including under Sections 354 (molestation), 147/149 (rioting), 341 (wrongful restraint), 506 (criminal intimidation), 509 (outraging modesty of a woman), 153A (promoting enmity between two groups), 323 (assault), and 427 (criminal trespass). The Delhi Police alleged that “nine African women were victims of molestation and manhandling by a mob led by Mr. Bharti”. These women are among the prosecution witnesses mentioned in the chargesheet.
An MM court has recorded the statements of some of these women under Section 164 of the Criminal Procedure Code, which are admissible as evidence in the trial.
“As per the investigation conducted so far, statements of witnesses, and documents on record… there are sufficient evidence against Mr. Bharti and the other accused,” the chargesheet said.
The FIR in the case had been lodged based on a court direction on a complaint by some of the victims.
The victims also alleged that they were subjected to a cavity search during their medical examination at AIIMS.
AAP MLA and former Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti is at present in police custody in an attempt-to-murder case lodged by his wife estranged Lipika Mitra this year
