Former Delhi Law Minister and MLA Somnath Bharti (Express Photo)
A Delhi court on Monday issued bailable warrant against AAP leader Somnath Bharti after he failed to appear before it in a domestic violence case filed against him by his wife. Special Judge Arvind Kumar passed the order and directed the accused to appear in court on April 27. The Delhi High Court had on March 20 allowed Bharti to settle the dispute with his wife, Lipika Mitra, through mediation after they expressed willingness to settle their differences.
Bharti, former law minister of Delhi, had moved the application in a pending plea filed by his wife against a trial court’s October 7, 2015 order granting him bail in the case. The investigators had on April 5, 2016 filed a charge sheet in the trial court in the case, claiming that the woman had alleged that Bharti had endangered the life of an unborn child she was carrying, by unleashing his dog on her.
The MLA from Malviya Nagar assembly, who was granted bail in October 2015 after being in jail for eight days, had denied the allegations. Mitra had on June 10, 2015 lodged a complaint against him with the Delhi Commission for Women and an FIR was lodged by the police on September 9, 2015 for allegedly subjecting her to domestic violence and trying to kill her. The AAP leader was arrested in the wee hours of September 29, 2015 after the Supreme Court had ordered him to surrender.
The trial court had granted bail to Bharti on the grounds that he was no longer required for investigation and observing that since he was a member of Delhi Assembly, there was no ground of apprehension that he may flee.