The Delhi Police told a court here on Saturday, the 3rd October 2015, that sanction had been received to initiate proceedings against Delhi’s ex-law minister and AAP MLA Somnath Bharti for the alleged molestation of African women during a midnight raid here last year. A magisterial court listed the matter for October 30 to consider a chargesheet against Bharti after the Delhi Police filed its supplementary chargesheet in the case.
After being denied bail by the Supreme Court in a domestic violence case, Bharti, an Aam Aadmi Party leader, was arrested after surrendering to police on Monday and is currently in police custody.
The Delhi Police, in its fresh report, submitted that the competent authority has sanctioned Bharti’s prosecution for the Khirki Extension nigh raid.
The Delhi government on September 24 approved Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung’s sanction to prosecute Bharti in the case.
Bharti and others were chargesheeted on September 29, 2014 (i.e., last year) under 16 sections of the Indian Penal Code, including those pertaining to outraging the modesty of women. In the chargesheet of over 100 pages, police cited around 41 prosecution witnesses, including nine African women, to buttress the charges.
Police had lodged an FIR on January 19, 2014, against “unidentified accused” on the court’s direction and booked them on charges dealing with wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and act intended to insult the modesty of a woman.
The former minister allegedly visited a house in Khirki Extension after receiving complaints about an alleged prostitution and drug racket in the area.
