New Delhi : The Delhi Police on Sunday lodged a FIR against “unknown” people, part of last week’s midnight raid conducted by state Law Minister Somnath Bharti at a house where some Africans resided.
The minister had reached the house last week following complaints from residents of the area in south Delhi that a prostitution and drug ring was operating from the premises.
A group of Ugandans was later hustled into the police station and made to undergo drug tests and other medical examination. One of them was also allegedly roughened up. The minister has denied the charge.
The unknown persons have been accused in the FIR of wrongful confinement, criminal intimidation and act intended to insult the modesty of a woman, a police officer said. The case has been registered against the mob led by Bharti on the metropolitan’s order. “Minister Bharti’s name is not mentioned in the complaint but we will ask the complainant to identify the law minister and others in the video footage,” a police official said.
Bharti on Sunday morning said he had no information about the court order. “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 media. The minister maintained that the entire episode was recorded on camera and “none of our volunteers touched anyone”.
“No one is paying attention to the impact of drugs on the youth or the rackets that are operating,” he said. He accused the police of complicity in the sex and drug racket. The BJP on Sunday demanded Bharti’s removal. “He should be immediately removed. He is a symbol of the AAP style of governance which is racist, discriminatory, violent and anarchic,” BJP’s Delhi president Vijay Goel said. “The sooner Delhiites get rid of the AAP regime, the better,” he added.
JAITLEY SAYS AAP COMFORTABLE ONLY IN STREET
Party leader Arun Jaitley also took a dig at the AAP for deciding to launch an agitation outside the home ministry office and said the party was more comfortable on the streets than the secretariat. “It is obvious that the AAP is more comfortable doing a dharna than in the sachivalaya (secretariat). The past three weeks have shown that in the sachivalya, the party gets into a self-destructive mode,” Jaitley wrote on his blog on Sunday. Saying there was no discipline in AAP, the BJP leader wrote: “Is the planned dharna for one day a ploy to fracture its non-transparent arrangement with the Congress? Is the AAP looking for a way out of the government and get back to the streets?”
“The party comprises ideologists, activists, the self-opinionated and the self-righteous. Forming a party and running a government is very different from leading an agitation.”
The BJP leader further said Bharti has “created a serious problem with African nationals staying in Delhi”.