Cops to reply in Bharti case

NEW DELHI: A trial court on Monday asked Delhi Police to respond in a month to a plea filed by AAP MLA Somnath Bharti seeking reinvestigation in a molestation case in which he and four others have been chargesheeted.
Bharti, who has been accused of molesting some African women during an illegal midnight raid, and his counsel also sought the court's direction for registration of FIRs against three police officers-DCP (south) and the then and current SHO of Malviya Nagar police station-for framing him in the case.
The court, however, asked Bharti what his locus standi was at this stage as he has not yet been summoned as an accused. "What is your locus standi in the case at this moment? You are not yet summoned by the court," metropolitan magistrate Niti Phutela said. To this, Bharti said, "I am one of the proposed accused in the case and the court should hear me before taking cognizance of the chargesheet filed."
Claiming gross misuse of law in the probe, Bharti said no prior sanction was taken from competent authorities before filing of a chargesheet or lodging an FIR against him as he was an elected representative of the people. "They have framed me for political vendetta and these police officials should be booked for sedition charges. They tried to topple the elected government at the time and framed an elected representative in a false case," Bharti said through his counsel.
Meanwhile, investigating officer Vijay Chandel moved a plea seeking time to file a supplementary chargesheet which would be submitted after obtaining sanction for prosecuting Bharti under the provisions of the CrPC. The court allowed the IO's request and granted him time to file the supplementary final report. However, the court made it clear that till sanction is received for prosecution of Bharti, it will not take cognizance on the chargesheet. The next hearing will be on January 16.