New Delhi: Former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti broke down during questioning by investigators, who on Wednesday took him to his Dwarka residence where he came face to face with his wife in connection with the dowry harassment and attempt to murder case.
The police also added Section 212 of IPC (harbouring offender) in the FIR registered against Bharti, and said that so far they have identified five persons who allegedly sheltered the legislator while he was on the run.
"We have added Section 212 of IPC in the existing FIR and shall ask the court for an extension of Bharti's police custody at least by a day. "We need to take him to all those places where he had taken shelter during the run and make him confront all the persons who had harboured him," said Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Dependra Pathak.
Meanwhile, an official privy to the investigation said that Bharti broke down during his interrogation when he was asked specific details about how he used to assault his wife and why he did so. The police also asked him to clarify the allegation of unleashing his pet dog on his wife, Lipika Mitra.
They also asked him about a particular derogatory word which, Mitra had claimed, compelled her to report her ordeal to the police.
Bharti was also confronted with the driver of a Faridabad-based businessman, whose car he had borrowed and later fled from Delhi, said the official. The driver has recognised Bharti but the former law minister has so far claimed that he had never seen the driver.
The person who allegedly harboured party MLA Somnath Bharti during the period he evaded arrest was booked for criminal breach of trust in UP on Tuesday.
The accused, identified as Baney Singh (50), who the police claims is a local AAP leader at Agra, took Bharti to his distant relative Lal Singh's house at Sakatpur village near Agra when the MLA was on the run, said a senior Delhi Police official.
There Baney Singh, who was accompanied by another associate identified as Nattha Singh, borrowed Lal Singh's Maruti Alto car, telling him that the legislator had to move around the area for some official work and they shall return in a few hours.
But he did not keep his promise, said the official. "Both Baney Singh and Nattha Singh are now under the police scanner," Joint Commissioner of Police (Southwest) Dependra Pathak added.
By the time Bharti surrendered, Delhi Police also managed to track the owner of the car in which the MLA was found to be moving around most of the time. When cops approached Lal Singh, it emerged that Singh was cheated by his own relative.
Lal Singh later filed a complaint at Jagdishpur police station in UP and an FIR was registered, said the senior official. However, Somnath Bharti was not named in the FIR. Bharti was arrested around 4 AM on Tuesday, hours after he surrendered before the police on the direction of the Supreme Court. He was later presented before a city court, which sent him on two-days police custody.
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