The Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government has faced its first embarrassment with regard to a Cabinet member when allegations of its law minister Somnath Bharti influencing a witness surfaced.
According to reports, the Patiala House Court had in 2013 indicted Bharti for "tampering with evidence" along with his client Pawan Kumar in a corruption case. "The conduct of accused Pawan Kumar and his advocate (Bharti) is not only highly objectionable, unethical but also amounts to tampering with evidence," CBI Special Judge Poonam A Bamba observed in her order cancelling Kumar's bail on the ground that he misused his liberty, the report said. The Congress, which is providing outside support to the AAP government has demanded that action be initiated against Bharti if the allegations against him are true.
"It may have been possible that Kejriwal did not know about this case, but now that it is out in the media, he must act against him. Kejriwalji must deliver on his promise that he made to the people of zero tolerance towards corruption," Congress leader Shakeel Ahmed told. The BJP too slammed the debutant party demanding the resignation of Bharti saying the allegations against him were serious.
"This is a very serious allegation against Somnath Bharti. He misbehaved with his law secretary once. Now there is fresh evidence that he tried to tamper with evidence in an important case," BJP leader Harsh Vardhan told. Bharti, however, has denied the charges against him, terming the news report as 'malicious'. "Will expose CBI and its nexus to the hilt... wait for some time," he tweeted this morning.
Meanwhile, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday defended Law Minister Somanth Bharti asserting that his cabinet colleague did not tamper with evidence. According to media report Bharti and his client Pawan Kumar are facing prosecution on corruption charges - after the CBI accused them of influencing a prosecution's witness by speaking to him on phone and discussing it.
"Somnath Bharti was trying to save a junior level officer and the sting operation that has been done is being called tampering of evidence by the judges," Kejriwal told reporters. "We are ready to give the recording and then you can see and tell where has the tampering been done. I have told Somnath that the recording be played in the media," he added.
Explaining the case, the chief minister said: "We need to understand the entire case. This is almost a Rs.100 crore corruption case. It was a a fraud within the bank." "Whenever anybody exports anything, a letter of credit is received against the consignment. False letters Of credit were raised and senior bank officials were involved," added Kejriwal.
He also pointed out that the CBI made a junior level desk officer Pawan Kumar a scapegoat and arrested him. "Everybody was talking in the bank and openly accepting that they had put him (Pawan Kumar) in the trap. Pawan Kumar did a sting operation and called all senior officers," Kejriwal said. "Whatever, they were saying was recorded, there was no tampering of the evidence instead court was being given more evidence," he said.
On the otherside, the Congress, BJP demanded the resignation of the Delhi's law minister on the severe allegations of tempering with evidence on a subjudice case.
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