Delhi Police files charge sheet against AAP leader Somnath Bharati

Delhi Police has filed a charge sheet against former city Law Minister and Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti in a case pertaining to his alleged midnight raid on a house of some African women in South Delhi.

The charge sheet was filed against 18 identified accused including Bharti, who led the raid on 19th of January this year.

Bharti was charge sheeted under sections of molestation, assault, outraging a woman's modesty, criminal trespass and other sections of the Indian Penal Code.

The 100-page charge-sheet carries statements of the victims, witness accounts, medical examination reports, CCTV footage along with the video footage recorded by media personnel.

The IO said there are around 40 prosecution witnesses in the case including nine Ugandan women. During the last hearing on September 10, the court had directed the Delhi Police to file the final status report by 1 October "without fail".

The court had on 26 May issued a notice to the IO to remain present "in person" with the final status report. The court had on 29 January asked police to file status report while refusing to order lodging of a separate First Information Report (FIR) on a plea by an African woman seeking registration of a case against unnamed persons.

However, it had asked Delhi Police that the Ugandan woman be made co-complainant in the first FIR lodged on 19 January as she was also "the victim" of the same incident. The FIR was lodged on the court's direction after a Ugandan woman had approached it on 18.

Television footage aired on news channels had shown Bharti asking police officers to conduct the raid as he had received complaints of drugs and prostitution racket in that area.