Some of the Ugandan women, who alleged harassment during a raid by former law minister and AAP leader Somnath Bharti, have deposed before a judicial commission conducting a probe into the January 16 incident in Khirki Extension over which the area SHO was sent on leave.
“Statements of the foreign women have been taken along with Bharti and some residents of the Khirki Extension area,” said a source, adding that Bharti had also given his statement before the commission.
Retired additional district and sessions judge B L Garg, who is heading the judicial probe into the Bharti ‘raid’, said: “We are close to completing the probe.”
Sources said the commission’s report is expected to be submitted around the weekend. “By next week we will be free,” said a staff member.
“All those whose deposition was needed for an impartial probe were issued notices to appear before the panel,” said a source, indicating that a secretariat for the judicial probe was operating from 5 Alipur Road.
The Ugandan had women claimed they had been assaulted by unidentified men who forced them to undergo medical tests. Four separate complaints were lodged with the Malviya Nagar police station and a court on January 18 directed the police to register an FIR and conduct a detailed probe.
Bharti, a former minister in the outgoing AAP government, accused the police in Malviya Nagar of virtual complicity with a gang involved in sex and drugs in Khirki Extension and led a ‘raid’ to expose the racket.
Apart from the Bharti incident, the panel is also looking into alleged laxity by policemen in a bride burning case in west Delhi and the gang rape of a Danish woman near New Delhi Railway Station last month.
Former women and child minister Rakhi Birla said the police had refused to arrest the accused even on the day a woman was allegedly set on fire by her in-laws. While police accused the AAP ministers of interfering in their work, Kejriwal had denied any wrongdoing by his ministers.
Kejriwal even sat on a two-day dharna near Parliament to demand the suspension of lax policemen. He ended his agitation when two policemen were sent on leave, pending inquiry by Garg Commission.
The SHO of Malviya Nagar police station, who refused to raid an alleged drug and prostitution ring on the orders
of Bharti, and PCR van in-charge in Paharganj area, under which the 51-year-old Danish woman was gang raped, were sent on leave in January.
