AAP lawmaker Somnath Bharti booked for damaging AIIMS property

New Delhi:  Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Somnath Bharti and his supporters have been booked for damaging AIIMS property and misbehaving with its security guards, Delhi Police said on Sunday. Bharti denied the allegations. The Delhi Police registered an FIR following the complaint of All India Institute of Medical Sciences' (AAIMS) Chief Security Officer R.S. Rawat. Rawat, in his written complaint at south Delhi's Hauz Khas police station, said that Bharti, around 9.45 a.m. on September 9 "provoked the mob to damage the fence of government property (AIIMS)". "Bharti gave permission to unauthorised persons with JCB machines to get access inside AIIMS from Gautam Nagar Nallah road side and misbehaved with security personnel," said a police officer, citing Rawat's complaint. In the complaint, it was also alleged that six security personnel were injured while trying to intervene and stop Bharti and his supporters from damaging AIIMS property. Bharti and his supporters have been booked under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 186 (obstructing public servant), 353 (assault or criminal force to deter public servant) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. The fresh case against Bharti, the legislator from Malviya Nagar area of south Delhi and a former minister, came a day after AAP's another legislator, Amantullah Khan, was booked for molesting his sister-in-law. Bharti was earlier booked in a domestic violence case filed against him by his wife Lipika Mitra. He was later granted bail in the case. Bharti, however, termed the allegations "wrong". "It's wrong on the part of channels to show it as a scuffle issue between AIIMS guards and residents. The contentious wall was between the two sides," he said in a series of tweets. "Hundreds of residents of Gautam Nagar n Masjid moth including SHO (Station House Officer) Hauz Khas and other police officers were witness to the demolition." "Come what may, this wall will have to go in the larger interest of Gautam Nagar, Masjid Moth, Niti Bagh and rest of ward 164 residents," he tweeted.