New Delhi, April 24: The Rouse Avenue Court provided significant relief to Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti on Friday. The court acquitted Bharti and 16 others in a 2014 case involving the assault of African women. The ruling was delivered by Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neha Mittal.
During the hearing, the court stated that the testimonies of the African women could not be accepted, as they did not appear in court to testify. The court also found that no evidence was presented to support claims of “illegal assembly” by the crowd. Furthermore, the prosecution failed to reasonably explain the delay in filing the FIR by the police.
The Aam Aadmi Party welcomed the decision. Party spokespersons stated that Somnath Bharti was merely addressing local issues as a responsible public representative but was ensnared in a political conspiracy. Bharti expressed on X, “After a long struggle of 12 years, in the famous Khirki case of 2014, all accused, including myself and 17 others from Khirki, Jahapanah, and Hauz Rani, have been respectfully acquitted. This case was filed against alleged acts related to drug mafias and human traffickers from Uganda and other South African countries.”
On the night of January 15-16, 2014, then Law Minister Somnath Bharti, along with his supporters, raided a house in the Khirki Extension area of South Delhi. It was alleged that Bharti and his supporters mistreated and assaulted African women residing there. Bharti claimed he received complaints from local residents about a drug and prostitution racket in the area and that the police were not taking action.
It is noteworthy that in 2018, an anchor from a Noida news channel filed an FIR against Somnath Bharti for using abusive language and making threats during a live show. Additionally, his wife, Lipika Mitra, accused him of domestic violence, mental/physical harassment, and abandoning their dog during her pregnancy in 2015. In 2021, a trial court sentenced Bharti to two years in prison for an incident involving security staff at AIIMS and breaking a barricade in 2016.
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