Court acquits former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, others in African women assault case

New Delhi [India], April 25 : The Rouse Avenue court on Friday acquitted former Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti and 16 others in a case of alleged assault on women of African origin. An FIR was lodged at the Malviya Nagar police station in 2014.

Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate (ACJM) Neha Mittal acquitted Somnath Bharti and other accused persons.

"The statements of the victims are deemed to be inadmissible as they did not come to court. Any instance of unlawful assembly could not be proved. The prosecution has failed to prove its case," ACJM Mittal said.

The court said that the allegations against the accused persons do not stand.

Somnath Bharti, Aditya, Badlu Khan, Badal Khan, Deepak Chauhan, Anil Kumar, Pawan Saini, Naresh Saini, Dharam Chand Rana, Ved Saini, Rajesh Saini, Hemant Saini, Sanjeev Saini, Vijay Saini, Devender Chauhan, Anil Saini, Inder Saini, Shyam Lal Saini, were named in the case. Two accused were discharged by the court.

It was alleged that Bharti alongwith his supporters, raided an accommodation housing women of African origin in Khirki Extension area of Malviya Nagar in 2014.

It was the allegations that women were assaulted by an Unlawful assembly, molested, public servants were obstructed from discharging public duty, there was assault on public servants, rioting and other offences were committed.

After investigation, Delhi Police had filed a charge sheet for the offence under section 323, 354, 354C, 153A, 147, 149, 452, 186, 353, 356, 143, 152, 506, 509, 427, 341, 342, 34 IPC.

Somnath Bharti toldthat he got information that foreign nationals were involved in drug and human trafficking. The police were also informed, but action was not taken. He also said that the police could not produce the alleged victims in court. There was a delay in the registration of the FIR.

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