Delhi Court Suspends Two-Yr Jail Term Of AAP Leader Somnath Bharti In AIIMS Assault Case

The Order to suspend his 2 years jail term has been passed by Special Judge Vikas Dhull after he preferred an appeal against the order of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Ravindra Kumar Pandey.

It may be noted that last week a Delhi Court comprising of Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate, Ravindra Kumar Pandey had convicted AAP Leader Somnath Bharti for the offences of rioting, voluntarily causing hurt, assaulting or using criminal force on Public Servant in the execution of his duty and mischief causing damage to public property.

The Court of ACMM was of the view that the prosecution had duly proved its case beyond all reasonable doubt against the accused, Somnath Bharti.

[NOTE: The Court, however, observed that the prosecution could not prove its case against the other 4 co-accused in the case, namely, Daleep Jha, Jagat Saini, Rakesh Pandey and Sandeep.]

Noting that the appeal is going to take considerable time for disposal and having regard to grounds set out in the appeal, the Court, in its order, said,

"The application filed by the convict/appellant is allowed and conviction order dated 22.01.2021 and sentence order dated 23.01.2021 of Ld. Trial court are suspended during the pendency of this appeal, subject to the appellant furnishing personal bond in the sum of Rs. 20,000/­ with one surety in the like amount to the satisfaction of this court. Bail Bond filed. Same stands accepted."

This suspension order would enable Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Somnath Bharti to remain the MLA from Delhi's Malviya Nagar constituency for now.

The case against Bharti

The case dates back to 2016 wherein FIR was registered on 10.09.2016 on the basis of a complaint against Somnath Bharti, Jagat Saini, Dileep Jha, Sandeep, Rakesh Pandey and approximately 300 unknown associates of Som Nath Bharti for allegedly breaking the fence of boundary wall of AIIMS with JCB for creating an access to AIIMS on 09.09.2016 at around 9:45 AM.

According to the complaint, they were not accompanied by any government official and had damaged the fence boundary of AIIMS wall which is a Government property.

The complaint also alleged that the accused persons misbehaved and injured the security personnel of AIIMS while protecting the government land.

The Court while delivering the judgment rejected the defence taken by the accused Somnath Bharti that the security personnel at AIIMS did not fall under the meaning of public servants under sec. 21 of IPC.

"The Court is of the view that Section 21 of IPC Clause 12 covers the act of Security Staff of the AIIMS under the category of public servant as they get remuneration from the Government Agency/ AIIMS for performance of public duty. The security staff of AIIMS were performing the delegated duties of public servant and are duly covered under the definition of Public Servant. Hence, the defence of the accused that the security staff of the AIIMS are not public servant is discarded and not accepted." The Court held.

The Court directed the other 4 co-accused persons to furnish bail bonds in terms of sec. 437A CrPC of Rs. 10,000 each.

It may be noted that the magisterial court had also imposed a fine of Rs one lakh on Bharti. The court, however, had granted him bail to enable him to file an appeal against his conviction and jail term before superior court.

Click Here To Download Court's Order

Read Order