New Delhi: Aam Admi Party lawmaker Somnath Bharti surrendered before the police tonight after the Supreme Court ordered him to give up by evening in the domestic violence and attempt to murder case filed by his wife.
Bharti, accompanied by his lawyers, reached the Dwarka North police station in his car at around 10.10 pm and made himself available to the police.
The former Delhi law minister flashed the Constitution of India (bare act) which he was carrying as a huge posse of media personnel mobbed his car.
"There was a warrant and I was availing legal remedies till the Honourable Supreme Court directed me to surrender. In compliance with the direction...I am here to surrender," Bharti said, adding, "I was not running away from law. I was only availing the legal remedies guaranteed by the Constitution of India."
"This too shall pass and truth shall prevail," Bharti had tweeted from an undisclosed location around an hour before he gave up.
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One of the lawyers of Bharti said the legislator's father was unwell and that is why he could not surrender by evening as directed by the apex court. Bharti was "avoiding" and not "evading" police, he added.
Earlier in the day, Supreme Court had rejected his anticipatory bail plea and asked him to surrender.
"We want him to surrender before appropriate jurisdiction of the police by this evening. We don't intend to pass any further order," a bench comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justice Amitava Roy said while posting the matter for hearing on Thursday.
The bench also rejected a further request by his counsel that he be given time till 7 pm to surrender.
"No, we will not give time. If you want your matter to come on Thursday, you have to surrender today itself," the bench said.
Bharti's counsel and senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam submitted that the whole incident was an outcome of the matrimonial dispute in which, not only the couple, but their two children were also sufferers.
The court should keep this in mind while hearing Bharti's appeal against the rejection of his anticipatory bail by the trial court and the Delhi High Court, he contended.
However, the bench said it was not concerned with the issue at this stage and asked how should Bharti have conducted himself as a responsible citizen after dismissal of his plea for anticipatory bail by the trial court and the Delhi High Court.
"Not to say you have lost before two courts (trial court and High Court). You went for anticipatory bail before the trial court, you did not succeed. You went for anticipatory bail before the High Court, you did not succeed. What is your duty as a responsible citizen," the bench asked.
"First you surrender, then we will see whether the matter should be referred to mediation centre. We want family dispute to be sorted out but we can't be saying that we will be protecting an absconder.
Bharti's wife Lipika Mitra had filed a complaint of domestic violence with Delhi Commission for Women on June 10 alleging that her husband had been abusing her since their marriage in 2010.
She had also given a complaint to the police in this regard, following which an FIR against Bharti was registered at Dwarka North police station.
