The Delhi High Court on Wednesday suspended the two-year jail term of AAP MLA Somnath Bharti in a case of assault on All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) security staffer.
Justice Suresh Kait also stayed Mr. Bharti’s conviction in the case and sought response of the Delhi government on his plea challenging his conviction and the sentence. The High Court will hear the case again on May 20.
Mr. Bharti was taken into custody and sent to prison on Tuesday after pronouncement of the verdict by a trial court here.
According to the prosecution, on September 9, 2016, Mr. Bharti, along with nearly 300 others, brought down the fence of a boundary wall at AIIMS here with a JCB operator.
‘No evidence’
In the petition before the High Court, Mr. Bharti claimed that the court has erroneously convicted and sentenced him and said it was a case of no evidence and the verdict of the trial court was based on totally false and fabricated story of the prosecution.
“The case of the prosecution is full of improvements, embellishments, contradictions and is unworthy of reliance and will fall like a pack of cards just by the stroke of the sheer hand of providence by this court,” his plea said.
His plea said the magisterial court as well as the sessions court failed to appreciate that he is a sitting and third time MLA having good reputation in the society and he devotes all his time for the service of the society. “