New Delhi: A day after being booked by the Delhi Police for damaging AIIMS property and threatening its security guards, AAP MLA Somnath Bharti on Monday cried foul and alleged that his party members were being targeted by their political rivals.
Through a mail addressed to media houses, Bharti also sought to explain the chain of events leading to the registration of an FIR against him following a complaint from AIIMS Chief Security Officer RS Rawat.
''In the year 2010 during CWG games, Gautam Nagar Nala lying behind AIIMS was decided to be covered to provide a road from General Raj School to Ring Road in parallel to Aurbindo Marg.
Crores of the public money were spent but the work was shoddy and left incomplete, deliberately, so that the built cover of Nalah doesn't get used by the local residents primarily of Gautam Nagar, Masjid Moth, Niti Bagh etc. resulting in illegal misappropriation of the property by AIIMS,'' he said.
Bharti said that AIIMS recently started using the road for illegal parking, making to the tune of 20 lakhs every month.
He further stated that local residents have long demanded access to this partially built road to have a bypass to Ring Road and to AIIMS. In absence of this access, local residents have to take a detour of over 3-kms spending over 40 minutes to reach AIIMS.
Bharti said that he had taken up the issue with Delhi Govt officers and SDMC.
He informed that he got response from the PWD, which convened a meeting of officials from UTTPAC, SDMC, Traffic Police, CPWD and AIIMS. However, there was no response from AIIMS in this regard.
On September 9, he along with some residents reached the disputed site after a letter was sent by chief engineer, PWD to all concerned.
Here is d letter of PWD 2 AIIMS explaining d situation completely. AIIMS is attempting 2 monopolize public property. pic.twitter.com/DpACLeQiKW
— Adv. Somnath Bharti (@attorneybharti) September 11, 2016
Around 9.30 am, he claimed, residents gathered and JCB started the demolition of the wall to connect the road built on the Nalah to Sudershan road. Within minutes, the AIIMS officials gathered on their side with JCB.
The demolition was stopped after the intervention of SHO, Hauzkhas and an assurance was given that AIIMS will participate in the discussion on the issue on September 14 at PWD HQ at ITO.
He also informed that everything was recorded, which further proves that there was no scuffle between AIIMS guards and local residents.
The clarification from Bharti came a day after police lodged an FIR against him following a complaint from AIIMS Chief Security Officer RS Rawat.
Rawat, in his written complaint at Hauz Khas police station, alleged that Bharti, around 9.45 am on September 9 "provoked the mob to damage the fence of government property (AIIMS)".
"Bharti gave permission to unauthorised persons with JCB machines to get access inside AIIMS from Gautam Nagar Nallah road side and misbehaved with security personnel," a police officer, citing Rawat's complaint, was quoted as saying by IANS.
It was also alleged that six security personnel were injured while trying to intervene and stop Bharti and his supporters from damaging AIIMS property.
Through a series of tweets, Bharti also spoke about the AIIMS land encroachment issue and the subsequent action against him.
Now the movement will start to free Gautam Nagar 4m all excesses of AIIMS n will end only after settling all pending issues with AIIMS..n/n
— Adv. Somnath Bharti (@attorneybharti) September 11, 2016
