AIIMS Assault Case: Delhi HC Suspends Somnath Bharti’s Jail Term
In 2016, Bharti, along with 300 others, had demolished the fence of a boundary wall at AIIMS with a JCB.
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The Delhi High Court on Wednesday, 24 March, suspended the two-year jail term of convicted Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLA Somnath Bharti in a case of assault on AIIMS security staff, reported PTI.
ANI reported that the court also granted him bail.
Earlier on Wednesday, the Aam Aadmi Party MLA had moved the HC in a bid to challenge his conviction and two-year sentence in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) security staff assault case.
On Tuesday, a trial court had upheld his conviction dated 23 January, when Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Kumar Pandey sentenced Bharti to two years of imprisonment for rioting, unlawful assembly under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) along with mischief causing damage to public property under Prevention of Damage to Public Property (PDPP) Act, and imposed a fine of Rs 1 lakh.
Immediately after the passing of the judgment on Tuesday, Somnath Bharti was taken into judicial custody.
However, in a tweet on Tuesday, Bharti said, "It was 23 March when people in power duly aided by Indian politicians hanged Shahid-e-azam Bhagat Singh Ji, Rajguru Ji and Sukhdev Ji, and today again, I failed to get justice from sessions court and am being sent to Jail for my struggle for rights of people in a false case. Inquilab zindabad!”
According to key witnesses, Bharti had headed the mob that broke the fence at the boundary wall of the AIIMS with the JCB machine as well as manually, IANS reported.
(With inputs from IANS, ANI and PTI.)
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