AAP MLA Somnath Bharti surrenders in domestic violence case

Aam Aadmi Party MLA and former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, accused of attempt to murder and dowry harassment by his estranged wife, surrendered at a police station in Dwarka on Monday.

Aam Aadmi Party MLA and former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, accused of attempt to murder and dowry harassment by his estranged wife, surrendered at a police station in Dwarka on Monday.

AAP MLA Somnath Bharti shows a copy of the Constitution as he arrives to surrender at a police station (Virendra Singh Gosain (HT Photo))

The former Delhi law minister had been evading arrest, with police saying he was behaving like a “professional criminal”, changing his location and mobile numbers frequently.

The fresh development came on the day the Supreme Court rejected Bharti’s bail plea and asked him to surrender. The court said it would hear the matter next on October 1 only if Bharti surrendered by Monday evening.

Meanwhile, Bharti’s lawyer said that all the allegations againt the AAP legislator were baseless.

In further trouble for the Malviya Nagar legislator, the Delhi government sanctioned his prosecution for allegedly leading a midnight raid against African women in south Delhi’s Khirki Extension in January 2014 when he was the law minister.

The turnaround by the AAP government, which had so far backed Bharti in the raid case, came a day after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal called him an “embarrassment” to the AAP for running away from police action in the domestic violence case.