Won't lodge fresh FIR in midnight raid case: Police to court

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Saturday told a court here that it would not lodge a fresh FIR on a complaint filed by another African woman who has claimed that she was molested during last week's midnight raid by a group allegedly led by Law Minister Somnath Bharti.

"Present petitioner has already been examined in the (FIR lodged on January 19) case by the investigating officer and her statement under section 164 of CrPC has also been recorded on January 21. Hence, no fresh FIR was registered as the matter pertains to the same incident in which the case has been registered," Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP) B S Jaiswal said in a reply filed before Metropolitan Magistrate Chetna Singh.

The DCP also said that the complainant has already been made a witness in the FIR which was lodged on January 19 after the court's direction.

The reply was filed on Saturday after the magistrate had earlier sought the response of police on whether the complainant had approached them.

However, submissions by the police were opposed by advocate Rakesh Sherawat, who appeared for the Ugandan woman and said that she was molested by a group of people during the midnight raid on the intervening night of January 15-16.

"She herself is the victim of the incident, so a separate FIR is required to be lodged. She was molested by a group of 9-10 people. Until the investigation is not done separately, how can it be established that she was molested by whom," the lawyer told the court. The court, however, directed the advocate to file written submission in response to the reply filed by police. "After you file the reply, I will look into it," the magistrate said and listed the matter for January 28.

The police told the court that on January 19, an FIR was lodged against unknown persons under various sections of the IPC, including 153-A (promoting enmity between classes), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 354 (outraging women modesty), 509 (uttering any word or making any gesture intended to insult the modesty of a woman), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 147 (rioting) at the Malviya Nagar police station.

The FIR was lodged by police on court's direction after a Ugandan woman had filed a plea on January 18 seeking lodging of criminal case against unknown persons.

Later in the week, another African woman had moved the court seeking registration of a separate FIR alleging that she was molested by the group.

The woman had claimed that the group had forcibly held her hands and took her out of the house along with her sisters who resides with her.

Three foreign women have till date recorded their statements before a magistrate, in which they have stated that Bharti, the MLA from Malviya Nagar, had barged into their house along with his supporters on the intervening night of January 15-16, court sources had said.

In the earlier application filed before the court, the foreign national had alleged that she and the other women were subjected to a cavity search during their medical examination at AIIMS and that the minister and his people had asked them in public to give urine samples.

Television footage 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.