Delhi court acquits ex-AAP MLA Somnath Bharti, 17 others in 2014 Malviya Nagar raid case

A Delhi court acquitted former AAP MLA Somnath Bharti and 17 others in a 2014 case of alleged harassment of African women, citing lack of evidence.

NEW DELHI

The judgment was delivered by additional chief judicial magistrate Neha Mittal of the Rouse Avenue courts. (Shutterstock)

A Delhi court on Friday acquitted former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Somnath Bharti and 17 others in connection with a midnight raid at south Delhi’s Khirki Extension in January 2014, wherein the group allegedly targeted and harassed women from African countries.

The judgment was delivered by additional chief judicial magistrate Neha Mittal of the Rouse Avenue courts.

The court said, “The statements of the victims are deemed to be inadmissible as they did not come to court. Any instance of unlawful assembly could not be explained. The prosecution has failed to prove its case”.

The court further said that the delay in registration of the case could not be proved by the prosecution. A detailed order of the judgment is awaited.

On the intervening night of January 15 and 16 in 2014, then law minister and AAP MLA from Malviya Nagar, Bharti is alleged to have led a group of persons who harassed and assaulted women from African countries living on rent, over claims that the women were involved in illegal activities. The prosecution contended that multiple women sustained injuries during the raid.

Bharti, who also got involved in a scuffle with police personnel during the raid, alleged that he had received several complaints of a drug trade and prostitution ring being run from the place. In 2018, the court framed molestation charges against Bharti and others, noting that there was a sufficient prima facie case against all the accused persons to proceed in the trial.

The court had framed charges against Bharti and others under sections 147/149 (rioting), 354 (molestation), 354C (voyeurism), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 143 (unlawful assembly), 509 (outraging a woman’s modesty), 153A (promoting enmity between two groups or religions), 323 (assault), 452 (house trespass), 427 (criminal trespass) and 186 (obstructing public servant in discharge of public functions) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

In its charge sheet, the Delhi Police cited 41 prosecution witnesses, including nine African women, to prove its case.

An FIR was lodged by the police in the case on the court’s direction after a Ugandan woman, one of the victims, filed a plea on January 18, 2014. She had sought a criminal case against unknown persons in the incident.