Delhi court orders FIR against Somnath Bharti, minister remains defiant

In further signs of trouble for controversial Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti, a Saket court has ordered the Delhi police to file an FIR against him, based on the complaints by two Ugandan women. The women have alleged they had been manhandled by a mob led by Bharti, who led a midnight ‘raid’ against ‘drugs and prostitution’ in Khirki village of his constituency of Malviya Nagar. The court passed the order under section 156 (3) of the Criminal Procedure Code, which gives a magistrate the right to to order registration of a criminal offence. [caption id=“attachment_1347681” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Somnath Bharti: Image from Facebook[/caption] Bharti had apparently accused the African nationals of being prostitutes and criminals and had demanded their arrest, despite not having a warrant against them. He claimed to have been acting on a complaint received from local residents. The state law minister said that he was not aware of any case being filed against him, but said that he would put his stand forward in the event of an investigation. He also denied any wrong doing. “I don’t think any of our volunteers laid a hand on anyone. We are people who end up getting beaten, we don’t beat people”, he told reporters. “No one is talking about the impact of what was happening there on the youth. Why isn’t anyone talking about that? All these things take place with the support of the police,” he added. He also hit out at BJP senior leader Arun Jaitley, who had expressed concern at the ‘seemingly racist’ comments made by Bharti, who had talked about the ‘Ugandans or Nigerians’ in a derogatory manner. “Arun Jaitley should remember that he is a neta and not a lawyer. If he doesn’t work for the people he will be left nowhere,” Bharti said. The incident, which has been widely condemned across the political spectrum, has however, been vigorously defended by AAP leaders and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal has asked Union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde to suspend the four police officials for allegedly not conducting a raid without a warrant as ordered by Bharti. He has also said that if no action is taken against the four officials by Monday, 10 am, all AAP ministers would sit on a ‘dharna’ outside the Home Ministry. According to this report in the Times of India, when the police arrived, Bharti asked them to arrest the two. The police first refused since they had no evidence against them. This infuriated the minister. He complained that the Malviya Nagar SHO, Vijay Pal, who had come to the spot, had returned without taking any action. “There was a building full of girls. We called the police. First they took a long time to come and then left after refusing to raid the premises. They are not listening to me, the law minister,” Bharti said. Speaking to CNN-IBN after the incident, one of the Ugandan women revealed that they were assaulted by the mob accompanying Bharti. “We were returning from a party when we reached here and we saw a lot of Indian men on the road. They stopped our car, started shouting at us. We were really scared, so refused to step out. They started banging the doors of our car. When the police came, we finally stepped out of the car.” Another woman demanded Bharti’s resignation. She said, “Police helped us because I think they were going to kill us. The way they were treating us as if we were criminals. We are not criminals. The minister who conducted the raid should be made to resign. What he’s doing is not right . We just want to go to our embassy.”