Overview
- A Delhi magistrate at Rouse Avenue Courts acquitted Somnath Bharti and 17 others on Friday, with a written order to follow.
- Additional Chief Judicial Magistrate Neha Mittal said the women who alleged assault did not appear in court, so their statements could not be used as evidence.
- The court said prosecutors failed to establish any unlawful assembly and did not justify the delay in registering the case.
- The case began after a Ugandan woman’s plea led to an FIR on January 18, 2014, and police later named 41 witnesses, including nine African women.
- The allegations concerned a late-night incident on January 15–16, 2014, in Khirki Extension, and Bharti said there was no raid and that he only urged police to act.