Khirki raid: AAP leader Somnath Bharti ​​claims this video proves he's not a molester or racist

Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) ​minister Somnath Bharti has submitted a footage in the court ​​to back his case regarding his midnight raid this January at the house of a group of African nationals living in Khirki Extension, south Delhi. According to Bharti, this video, accessed by HT, shows the “true course of events” which took place on the night of the raid by him and his followers.

Former Delhi law minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti has submitted a footage in a New Delhi court to back his claims in an ongoing molestation and racial hatred case against him.

As Delhi's minister Bharti had in January this year carried out a midnight raid at the house of a group of African nationals in south Delhi's Khirki Extension, following which the police registered a case of molestation and racial hatred.

Bharti has now in his defence filed a video before a city court purportedly showing crucial visual evidence, he says cops suppressed during investigation.

According to Bharti, this video, accessed by HT, shows the “true course of events” which took place on the night of the raid by him and his followers. He has further alleged the cops had failed to disclose that their only eye-witness was a drug dealer and pimp who had an axe to grind with him because of his efforts to shut down her trafficking trade in Malviya Nagar.

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Former AAP minister Somnath Bharti claims this video ​will prove he's not a racist

Bharti has asked the court to direct FIRs to be registered against the cops who handled the investigation on the basis that they registered the molestation and racial hatred complaint against him with mala fide and politically motivated intent. The court is due to rule on this application on November 3.

In its chargesheet filed on Sept 29. In the over 100-page document, police have cited around 40 prosecution witnesses, including nine African woman, to buttress the charges. They’ve accused Bharti and his followers of “trespassing” into the house of the main complainant — who was residing with two other foreign nationals, also complainants in the case. It claims that the accused “molested and assaulted them” and “dragged them out of their houses”.

The incident took place on the intervening nights of January 15 and 16, when Bharti, the MLA from Malviya Nagar in south Delhi, along with several followers barged into the houses of African residents living in Khirkee Extension. He had said that his actions were based on complaints received from other residents in the area that the Ugandan families had set up a drugs and prostitution racket there.

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