Somnath Bharti tenders apology to woman journalist

A special Court on Saturday agreed to close the case against Aam Admi Party MLA Somnath Bharti after he tendered an apology to a woman journalist (complainant).

The woman Journalist had filed the case against Bharti in 2018 for allegedly referring to her in an objectionable manner during a live show on a news channel.

Somnath Bharti through his lawyer Mohd Irshad submits that on 20.11.2018, while he was on telephonic conferencing with the complainant, "he had made certain statements and those statements and his words were not directed towards the complainant but if his words have hurt sentiments of the complainant in any way, he offers his sincere and deepest apology to the complainant".

The complainant, after Somnath Bharti's apology through Counsel Yogesh Swaroop, agrees to compound the present case against the accused. She requested that the present case may be disposed of as compounded. She further submits that she agrees to withdraw/compound the related FIR also.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Sachin Gupta said, after noting the statements of the parties recorded, particularly the statement of the complainant regarding the compounding of the present complaint case against the accused, the present complaint case stands disposed of as compounded.

Court also noted that in the present case, notice for offense punishable u/s. 500 IPC was framed against the accused, which is compoundable in nature.

The woman Journalist in 2018 had filed a criminal defamation case against Somnath Bharti and alleged that Somnath Bharti on a live interview had called her agent of BJP and had used various inappropriate words.

( With inputs from ANI )