{"id":8180,"date":"2026-04-25T00:21:17","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:51:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/after-12-yrs-aaps-somnath-bharti-17-others-acquitted-in-khirki-raid-case-delhi-news\/"},"modified":"2026-04-25T00:21:17","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T18:51:17","slug":"after-12-yrs-aaps-somnath-bharti-17-others-acquitted-in-khirki-raid-case-delhi-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/after-12-yrs-aaps-somnath-bharti-17-others-acquitted-in-khirki-raid-case-delhi-news\/","title":{"rendered":"After 12 yrs, AAP\u2019s Somnath Bharti, 17 others acquitted in Khirki raid case | Delhi News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-130502474,imgsize-12238,width-400,height-225,resizemode-72\/img_10_gavel_getty_3_1_lgk9q79njpg.jpg\" alt=\"After 12 yrs, AAP\u2019s Somnath Bharti, 17 others acquitted in Khirki raid case\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">New Delhi: <\/span>A Delhi court on Friday acquitted AAP ex-MLA Somnath Bharti and 17 others in connection with a Jan 2014 midnight raid, which allegedly targeted women from Africa, at South Delhi\u2019s Khirki Extension.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"3\"\/>Holding that the charges were not proved, additional chief judicial magistrate Neha Mittal observed that \u201cthe statements of the victims are deemed to be inadmissible as they did not come to court. Any instance of unlawful assembly could not be proved. The prosecution has failed to prove its case.\u201d<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"5\"\/>During the hearing, the court noted that the prosecution failed to establish the allegation of unlawful assembly and could not satisfactorily explain a delay in lodging the FIR. <!-- -->It also observed that the identity of the alleged victims could not be established, further weakening the case and leading to the acquittal of all 18 people.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"10\"\/>A detailed judgment is awaited.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/>On the intervening night of Jan 15 and 16, 2014, Bharti, then Delhi\u2019s law minister and Malviya Nagar MLA, allegedly led a group that harassed and assaulted African women living in the area, accusing them of involvement in illegal activities. According to the prosecution, multiple women sustained injuries during the incident.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>An FIR was registered on the court\u2019s direction after a Ugandan woman, one of the alleged victims, filed a complaint on Jan 18, 2014, seeking action against unidentified persons.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"18\"\/>In 2018, the court framed charges against Bharti and the others under sections 147\/149 (rioting), 354 (molestation), 354C (voyeurism), 342 (wrongful confinement), 506 (criminal intimidation), 143 (unlawful assembly), 509 (outraging a woman\u2019s modesty), 153A (promoting enmity between groups), 323 (assault), 452 (house trespass), 427 (criminal trespass) and 186 (obstructing a public servant) of Indian Penal Code, observing a prima facie case against the accused.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>A chargesheet of <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/delhi-police\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Delhi Police<\/a> cited 41 prosecution witnesses, including nine African women, to support the case.<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/city\/delhi\/after-12-yrs-aaps-somnath-bharti-17-others-acquitted-in-khirki-raid-case\/articleshow\/130502477.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Delhi: A Delhi court on Friday acquitted AAP ex-MLA Somnath Bharti and 17 others in connection with a Jan 2014 midnight raid, which allegedly targeted women from Africa, at South Delhi\u2019s Khirki Extension.Holding that the charges were not proved, additional chief judicial magistrate Neha Mittal observed that \u201cthe statements of the victims are deemed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8181,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8180","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-delhi"},"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8180"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8180\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8181"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8180"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8180"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8180"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}