FIR against Bharti for ‘instigating’ men to misbehave with woman

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police registered an FIR against former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti on Wednesday, for allegedly ‘instigating’ some of his supporters to misbehave

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police registered an FIR against former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti on Wednesday, for allegedly ‘instigating’ some of his supporters to misbehave with a woman associated with an NGO.

HT Image

Bharti, who is the Aam Aadmi Party’ s legislator from Malviya Nagar, has been booked under section 109 (Punishment of abetment if the act abetted is committed in consequence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).

His supporters who allegedly misbehaved with the woman at his instigation, have been booked under charges of molestation, physical assault, criminal intimidation and outraging a woman’s modesty.

Nupur Prasad, additional DCP (south), said Bharti was booked under abetment charges and that the FIR was registered against him at the Saket police station on a complaint received from the woman.

A senior police officer said the crime took place a fortnight ago, when the woman went to attend a programme where Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal was the chief guest.

“The woman accused the Malviya Nagar MLA of instigating the men who then physically manhandled, molested and threatened her. She accused them of using filthy language against her,” the officer said.

Bharti countered the charges against him.

“I am ashamed at this misuse of the Delhi Police by the Modi government. I have video footage that shows that the women had breached the chief minister’s security cordon and the police personnel had stopped them. Why should the FIR be registered against us? The FIR against me discredits the Delhi Police,” Bharati countered.

The police refused to summon Bharti immediately. “We will first record the statement of the complainant under section 164, then only we will summon him to join the investigation,” the officer added.

Earlier, the AAP legislator was in the news for domestic violence, molestation and promoting enmity. Bharti was chargesheeted in a domestic violence case filed by his wife Lipika Mitra.

He is facing charges of molestation, assault and promoting enmity in a case dating to January 2014 when he led raids on several flats in south Delhi’s Khirki extension area where foreigners of African origin were staying.