Somnath Bharti moves court seeking monitoring of probe in domestic violence case

New Delhi: Former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti on Wednesday moved a city court seeking monitoring of probe in a domestic violence and attempt to murder case filed by his wife and sought cancellation of the non-bailable warrant (NBW) issued against him. Denying allegation that he had unleashed his dog on his wife Lipika, Bharti said he was ready to have the dog examined by the Investigating Officer(IO) or an expert. In his petition, Bharti said “it is submitted that experts say that a family dog can never be forced against one family member by another. Further, the said dog was a Labrador, and Labradors by the very nature are peaceful animals.” The plea was moved before Metropolitan Magistrate Manika, who had issued NBW against Bharti last Monday, would come up for hearing on 18 September. [caption id=“attachment_2436062” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Somnath Bharti. Image Credit: Facebook[/caption] In his application, Bharti has claimed that invocation of section 307 (attempt to murder) of IPC in the FIR was “politically motivated” to somehow arrest him and alleged that it was done under the dictates of the central government “which is disgruntled due to the recent loss in Delhi elections and is taking revenge by targeting (AAP) leaders.” In the applications moved through advocate Vijay Aggarwal, Bharti said he has joined investigation on three occasions and also claimed that the police was prejudiced against him due to issuance of notice to Commissioner of Police in a separate matter which has “led to the malicious and vindictive conduct of the Commissioner in the case in order to frame and persecute him.” It said that as he was the Chairman of the Privileges Committee of the State Assembly, Bharti was tasked to issue notice to the Police Commissioner for breach of privilege in a matter. Seeking cancellation of the NBW issued against him, Bharti said it had no purpose as he was not absconding from the law. The NBW was issued on an application moved by the Delhi Police which had contended that Bharti was not cooperating in the probe and had failed to appear for interrogation despite three summons issued to him. Regarding allegations made by Lipika under section 313 IPC (causing miscarriage without woman’s consent) against Bharti that he had forced her to get an abortion done, Bharti claimed he was in possession of various audio conversations, which make it clear that the allegations are false. “In the conversation, the Complainant (Lipika) herself told the Applicant (Bharti) that there is no need for the Applicant to accompany the complainant for the abortion. The copy of the CDs of the audio conversations between complainant and applicant falsify the allegations of commission of offence under section 313 IPC,” the plea said. Lipika had filed a complaint of domestic violence with the Delhi Commission for Women on 10 June alleging that her husband had been abusing her since their marriage in 2010. She had also given a complaint to police in this regard. The Delhi Police has registered an FIR against Bharti under sections 307 (attempt to murder), 498A(cruelty towards partner in marriage), 324(voluntarily causing hurt by dangerous weapon), 406 (criminal breach of trust), 313 read with 511 (attempt to cause miscarriage without woman’s consent), 420 (cheating) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of IPC. PTI