The Delhi High Court on Wednesday stayed Aam Aadmi Party MLA Somnath Bharti’s conviction in a case involving an assault on All India Institute of Medical Sciences staff in 2016, and suspended his two-year jail term, PTI reported.
On Tuesday, a Delhi court had upheld the order sentencing Bharti to two years in prison. He was later sent to the Tihar Jail, according to the Hindustan Times. A day later, Bharti moved the Delhi High Court against the order.
The High Court directed the Delhi government to respond to Bharti’s petition and posted the matter for hearing on May 20, according to PTI.
Bharti was convicted in the case in January, but was granted bail so he could move the Delhi High Court against his conviction and sentencing. He had been convicted under Sections 149 (unlawful assembly) and 147 (rioting) of the Indian Penal Code and Section 3 of the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act, according to Live Law.
In his his petition filed before the Delhi High Court, Bharti argued that his sentencing was “contrary to law and facts of the case”, ANI reported. “The same is 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,” he said.
The petition added: “There is no incriminating evidence led by the prosecution to attribute any role / overt act to fulfill the ingredients of an offence under Section 3(1) of The Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act.”
Also read: AAP’s Somnath Bharti sentenced to 2 years in prison for assaulting AIIMS staff in 2016, gets bail
On September 9, 2016, Bharti along with nearly 300 others took down the fence of a boundary wall of the AIIMS with a crane. He was an MLA from Malviya Nagar Constituency from February 2015-’20. The crowd, allegedly led by Bharti, also threw stones at the hospital’s security officers.
Bharti was held guilty of voluntarily causing hurt, assaulting, using criminal force, and rioting.
The MLA had told the special court in January that AIIMS illegally occupied the road along the drain near Gautam Nagar area, which was a public path, for commercial activities such as parking. The AAP leader also claimed that the demolition for opening the thoroughfare to the public was planned and executed by the Public Works Department, and supported by AIIMS.
However, the court had said there was only a proposal to open the covered drain for traffic, and no order was passed for the demolition of the wall and fence of AIIMS.
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