NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on Friday acquitted former AAP MLA Somnath Bharti in a 2014 case related to allegedly assaulting women from African countries in Malviya Nagar, noting that the witnesses had failed to depose before the court.
Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neha Mittal acquitted Bharti from the charge levelled against him. “The statements of the witnesses were inadmissible as they failed to depose before the court,” the judge said.
The police had cited around 41 prosecution witnesses, including nine African women, to buttress the charges. While granting the relief, the judge added that the prosecution had failed to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
According to the chargesheet, on the intervening night of January 15 and 16, 2014, Bharti, the then law minister of Delhi, and 16 others reached Khirki Extension at Malviya Nagar. They had allegedly assaulted Ugandan women living in rented accommodation there, accusing them of being involved in illegal activities, including prostitution.
An FIR was lodged on a court’s direction after a Ugandan woman filed a plea on January 18, 2014. She had sought the registration of a criminal case against unidentified persons in this regard.
In 2018, a magisterial court framed charges against Bharti and others under various penal provisions for rioting, molestation, voyeurism, wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation, outraging a woman’s modesty, assault and criminal trespass, among others.
According to Bharti, he had he had received many complaints from local residents about some Ugandan nationals running a ring of drugs and prostitution in the area. However, no drugs were recovered that night. The court had said at the time that there was sufficient evidence that some of the victims had been thrashed.
Charged with assaulting Ugandan nationals
According to the chargesheet, on the intervening night of January 15 and 16, 2014, Bharti, the then law minister of Delhi, and 16 others reached Khirki Extension at Malviya Nagar. They had allegedly assaulted Ugandan women living in rented accommodation there.