Delhi assembly speaker in court over riot case

Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel appeared before a court here on Saturday in a 2008 rioting case.

He appeared before Metropolitan Magistrate Sunil Kumar Sharma, who cancelled a bailable warrant issued against him. The court on March 21 issued the warrant against him after Goel failed to appear before it.

The court has fixed September 19 as the next date of hearing.

Police in its chargesheet has alleged that BJP workers pelted stones at the CPI-M office on March 9, 2008, damaged property and assaulted policemen who stopped them.

Goel, now an AAP leader, represents the Shahdara Assembly constituency of Delhi.

The police had chargesheeted 21 people, including Goel, BJP leaders and now a Union Minister Harsh Vardhan, Jagdish Mukhi and Aarti Mehra, in an alleged case of rioting and damaging public property during a protest by BJP activists at the CPI-M office in central Delhi in March 2008.

One of the 21 chargesheeted accused has died.