Aam Aadmi Party MLA Somnath Bharti on Wednesday approached the Delhi High Court challenging his conviction and sentencing order passed by a trial court in 2016 assault case.
Bharti filed a criminal revision petition challenging the order of the trial court on Tuesday and the same is likely to come up for hearing in the coming week.
Special MP MLA Judge Vikas Dhull had on Tuesday upheld the conviction of Bharti in the case and had dismissed his plea against the order of the Magistrate Court which had awarded.
While partly allowing his appeal, the Special Judge Dhull upheld the conviction of Bharti under Sections 149 and 147 of Indian Penal Code along with Section 3 (mischief causing damage to public property) of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984. The AAP legislature was, however, acquitted under Sections 323 and 353 of IPC.
In his plea before the high court filed through Advocate Mohd. Irshad said, “the instant case is a case of no evidence and the Impugned Judgment dated 23.03.2021 has been passed by the Special Judge relying upon the conjectures and surmises based upon the totally false and fabricated story of Prosecution foisting erroneously the guilt upon the Petitioner.”
“The Prosecution has miserably failed to prove guilt of the Petitioner beyond reasonable doubt to substantiate the charges under Section 147 IPC and 149 IPC and u/s 3 of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, 1984,” the plea said.
He further stated that the judgment and order of sentence awarded by the Special Judge is contrary to law and facts of the case. “The same are erroneous, illegal and thus are liable to be set aside in as much as, after going through the detailed evidence, the learned trial court wrongly passed the impugned orders,” the plea read.
He also said that there is no video-graphic proof/evidence showing the commission of the alleged offences by him. “the DVD in question, containing a recording of the incident, which was the only direct evidence in the instant case, has been destroyed,” the plea said. The plea has sought court’s direction to set aside the order passed by the Special Judge and acquit Bharti from all charges.
On Tuesday, Special MP MLA Judge Vikas Dhull passed the order, while dismissing the plea filed by Bharti against the order of the Magistrate Court, challenging his conviction and sentence. The Magistrate Court had sent him to two years of jail and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh in January this year.
The Court said, “The appeal of appellant is partly allowed and part of the judgement convicting and sentencing the appellant for the offence under Sections 323/353 IPC read with Section 149 IPC are accordingly, set aside. However, the part of the judgement and sentence order convicting and sentencing the appellant for the offence under Section 147 IPC read with Section 149 IPC and under Section 3(1) of PDPP Act are hereby affirmed.”
“Accordingly, the appeal is dismissed qua the conviction and sentence of appellant under Section 147 IPC read with Section 149 IPC and under Section 3(1) of PDPP Act. Appellant be taken into custody and be sent to Jail for serving the sentence as awarded by the Trial Court vide its sentence order dated January 23, 2021 for the offence under Section 147 IPC read with Section 149 IPC and under Section 3(1) of PDPP Act,” Special Judge Dhull had added.
Bharti, along with 300 supporters, demolished the fence of a boundary wall at AIIMS with a JCB operator on September 9, 2016. The complaint against Bharti was filed by the Chief Security Officer of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences.