Midnight raid: Delhi police files supplementary chargesheet against Somnath Bharti

New Delhi: Delhi Police on Saturday filed a supplementary charge sheet in a city court against AAP leader Somnath Bharti in a case of alleged molestation of African women during his purported midnight-raid last year when he was the Delhi Law Minister.

In supplementary final report filed before Metropolitan Magistrate (MM) Ankita Lal, the police informed the court that prosecution sanction against Bharti has been accorded by the competent authority.

In its 22-page report, the police has also annexed the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report and arrayed FSL director and a scientist as witnesses.

The court fixed October 30 for consideration of the report filed by Investigating Officer (IO) Vijay Chandel against Bharti, who is in police custody in a domestic violence case filed by his wife, Lipika Mitra.

Earlier, the police had filed a report on Bharti's plea for further probe in the case in a sealed cover. On January 16, the court had issued notice to the Deputy Commissioner of Police and given a last chance to IO to get the sanction for prosecution against Bharti expeditiously. The police said it has received the sanction on September 24.

In its charge sheet filed on September 27 last year, Delhi Police had said that "nine African women were victims of molestation and manhandling by a mob led by then Law Minister Somnath Bharti".

In the charge sheet, Bharti and 17 others have been booked under various sections of the IPC, including 354 (outraging women's modesty), 323 (voluntarily causing hurt), 506 (criminal intimidation) and 147 (rioting).

The police had arrayed 41 people 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, 2014.

In its charge sheet, police had said forensic reports of the victims' urine samples were awaited but reports of video footage collected from CCTV cameras installed at AIIMS, where the victims were taken for medical check-up, and footage from news channels have been received.

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

Later, another African woman approached the court seeking registration of a separate FIR alleging that she was also molested by the group.

The court had on January 29 last year asked the police to file a status report while refusing to order lodging of a separate FIR on the plea.

However, it had asked the police that the woman be made a co-complainant in the first FIR lodged on January 19 as she was also a victim of the same incident.