Court reserves order on Bharti's plea for further probe

Delhi Police today questioned in a court here the maintainability of controversial AAP MLA Somnath Bharti's plea seeking further probe in the case of alleged molestation of some African women during his purported midnight raid last year.
The police, through special public prosecutor Atul Shrivastava, told the court that Bharti's plea for further probe is not maintanable as cognisance of the charge sheet has not been taken by the magistrate.
He further informed the court that necessary prosecution sanction against Bharti in the case has been accorded by the competent authority.
Vijay Aggarwal, appearing for Bharti, contended that the plea was maintanable as charge sheet has been filed.

After hearing the arguments, Additional Sessions Judge Bhupesh Kumar reserved the order for October 31.
Meanwhile, the court also deferred the hearing of another plea of Bharti, seeking lodging of FIR against police officials for allegedly implicating him in the case, for next month.

Bharti has filed two revision pleas before a sessions court against the dismissal of his applications by a magisterial court seeking lodging of FIR against police personnel and seeking further probe in the case.
On November 10 last year, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate had dismissed Bharti's plea for lodging of an FIR against unnamed police personnel for allegedly implicating him in the case saying "without sanction of central or state government, no cognizance of offence can be taken."

In his plea, Bharti has said police has suppressed crucial facts, statements of several witnesses and a video recording, which were not taken into account when the charge sheet against him was filed.
Delhi Police had filed a final report against Bharti and 17 other accused and chargesheeted them for various offences under the IPC, including sections 354 (outraging women's modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 147 (rioting).
The police had arrayed 41 persons as prosecution witnesses in the case, including nine Ugandan women who were allegedly beaten up and molested by the mob led by Bharti on the intervening night of January 15-16 last year.

The FIR was lodged on January 19 last year on the court's direction after an Ugandan woman had approached it seeking a direction to police to file a criminal case against unnamed persons.