In a major setback to the Aam Aadmi Party, lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung has given his consent to prosecute former Delhi law Minister and party MlA Somnath Bharti in connection with alleged mis-behaviour with African women during a midnight raid in South Delhi, in January, 2014. Top sources told The Pioneer that the lieutenant Governor has given his consent to police for prosecution of Bharti.
However, Home Minister Satyendra Jain recently suggested that prosecution sanction should not be given against Bharti. According to sources, after the lieutenant Governor’s consent, a high-level meeting has been convened at the Players’ Building.
The lieutenant Governor’s nod to the prosecution has appeared amid an ongoing tussle with the Arvind Kejriwal Government and is likely to further aggravate tensions between the two. Both Kejriwal and lieutenant Governor are at loggerhead over several issues pertaining to supremacy of power in the Delhi Government.
Earlier this year, a court had asked the police to get prosecution sanction against Bharti from the competent authority. In its chargesheet filed in September last year, police had said that “nine African women were victims of molestation and manhandling by a mob led by Bharti” in Khirki Extension area.
On January 15-16th, Bharti and his supporters had been alleged to have coercively detained and threatened some African women during a confrontation with police in his constituency of Malviya Nagar over inaction against a suspected drug and prostitution racket. Bharti, who was then a minister in the AAP government, had denied the charges.
In the chargesheet, Bharti and 17 others have been booked under various sections of the IPC, including 354 (outraging women’s modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 147 (rioting).
The police arrayed 41 people as prosecution witnesses in the case, including nine Ugandan women, who were allegedly beaten up and molested by the mob led by Bharti on the intervening night of January 15-16, 2014.