Confrontation: AAP minister Somnath Bharti (left) mixed up governance with vigilantism when he locked horns with a Delhi Police official

Jan 20, 2014 at 08:57am IST, ibnlive

New Delhi: Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti is at the centre of a row as a CCTV footage from inside the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) showed that the minister was talking to doctors at 5 am when the medical tests were being carried out on Ugandan women.

Bharti has accused the Ugandan women of being prostitutes and drug peddlers. Sources have confirmed that Bharti reached AIIMS after the fracas at Khirki extension on Thursday and asked to ‘see’ for himself what was going on at the hospital.

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The women have filed a complaint against Bharti alleging that minister and his supporters used abusive language against them and detained them on the night of the raid. They alleged they were mistreated.

The Delhi Police has filed an FIR against Bharti and others after the women lodged a complaint with the metropolitan magistrate. The police said the victims will be asked to identify the Bharti and his supporters.

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The minister has, however, denied the allegation saying, “I strongly deny that me or any of my supporters had any role in the violence that happened there. I do not know if court has directed filing a case against me.”

Another woman demanded Bharti’s resignation. She said, “Police helped us. I thought people were going to kill us. The way they were treating us as if we were criminals. We are not criminals. The minister who conducted the raid should be made to resign. What he’s doing is not right. We just want to go to our embassy.”

On Saturday, Bharti tweeted, “Will do an expose in sometime on sex racketeering in Khirki extension.”

The Ministry of External Affairs has condemned the incident saying that the complaints filed will be probed. External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid said the incident was unacceptable. “I think it’s shocking, completely unconstitutional, unacceptable. I am worried about attitude here which just because you see someone different from you put label of worst kind of social evil on them. It’s completely unacceptable. What face will we show to the world that in India we have people with such narrow, such ridiculous way of treating foreigners.”

Meanwhile, Ethiopian Ambassador Gennet Zewide said the security remains a concern. She said, “Of course we’re very much concerned, our nationals are being harassed like that. It is not only a concern to African ambassadors but to everybody. I think the way it was handled, was not appropriate. It is not right and it has to be condemned. We’d like to have measures where every citizen, including our citizens of Africa, either for education or medical reason or tourism, have to feel safe.”

Earlier, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has strongly defending his government and his ministers vigilante stunts. Kejriwal defended his Bharti while stressing that the Delhi Police must be made answerable to the state government and not the Central government.

 

Read more here — http://ibnlive.in.com/news/cctv-video-shows-somnath-bharti-at-aiims-during-ugandan-womens-medical-checkup/446517-37-64.html

 

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