Metropolitan Magistrate Chetna Singh has told police to file charges of mischief, trespassing and criminal intimidation against Bharti after hearing a plea filed by the Ugandans.
A court has directed Delhi Police to lodge an FIR against law minister Somnath Bharti for allegedly entering the house of some women from Uganda staying in South Delhi’s Khirki Extension. Metropolitan Magistrate Chetna Singh has told police to file charges of mischief, trespassing and criminal intimidation against Bharti after hearing a plea filed by the Ugandan nationals, a police officer said.
The minister paid a visit to their house on Thursday following complaints from residents of the area in south Delhi accusing that they were part of a prostitution and drug ring. Bharti tried to force the Malviya Nagar police to raid their house and arrest Nigerians and Ugandans staying there, some of them women, claiming that they were members of a sex-and-drug trafficking racket. Police refused to take orders from him, saying they did not have a search warrant.
He had also allegedly forced four Ugandan women to undergo drug tests, who have since filed police complaints against the AAP volunteers.
Minister Bharti said he had no information about the court. “I have no idea of any case being registered. If anyone has filed such a case, I will go and present my stand,” he told the media.
Bharti maintained that the entire episode was recorded on camera and claimed that none of the volunteers touched anyone.
“No one is paying attention to the impact of drugs on the youths. No one is paying attention to the rackets that are operating,” he said.
He accused the police of complicity in the sex and drug racket. He also announced on Saturday that he would expose the sex racket in the locality soon. Bharti tweeted, “Will do an expose in sometime on sex racketeering in khirki ext”. When contacted, Bharti said he had stopped talking to the media because of the flak he received over the Khirki Extension raid.
He also plans to hold a public meeting in Khirki Extension on Sunday. The announcement comes two days after he asked residents there to draw up a list of houses where “activities of such people” are noticed.
According to Bharti, he will personally visit such houses and urge police to do the same.
Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal too has backed Bharti’s actions and met Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and union home minister Sushil Kumar Shinde to demand the suspension of police officers involved in the incident.
On Saturday, Kejriwal reiterated that he and his council of ministers would hold a demonstration outside Shinde’s office in North Block, if the three SHOs and two ACPs are not placed under suspension by 10 am on Monday.
In an interview to CNN-IBN, Kejriwal said his government was strongly opposed to “any harassment on the basis of nationality, caste, creed, religion and gender”. He blamed the union home ministry and the Delhi Police for the incident.
“The Home Ministry which exercises complete control over the Delhi Police should squarely take the blame for the compromises being made by the Delhi Police with regard to the safety and security of the people of the city,” Kejriwal said.
-with inputs from IANS
