New Delhi: BJP MLA
O P Sharma has been chargesheeted in the
Patiala House assault case. Sharma was caught on camera attacking a CPI activist on February 15 this year when JNUSU president Kanhaiya Kumar was being brought to the court.
The
police have also charged some lawyers with molesting and assaulting a few women journalists.
Sharma has been charged with causing hurt, wrongful restraint and criminal intimidation.
The police said that they had failed to identify some of the supporters who were with Sharma during the
assault on the CPI activist.
Apart from the statement of the victim, Ameeque Jamei, the police have cited video footage and mobile clippings of the incident as evidence in the case.
They have added Section 506 (threat) of IPC to the FIR as Sharma had allegedly threatened to kill the victim. The cops are likely to file a supplementary
chargesheet in the case.
The BJP MLA was first detained for a few hours on February 18 and then arrested on the charges of causing hurt. However, he was immediately granted bail.
After coming out of the police station, Sharma had told reporters, “If someone has to pay such a price for stopping a person who raised pro-Pakistan slogans, then I have got nothing to say.”
Sharma, a first-time MLA, had denied charges of violence despite being captured on camera. “We were stopping the man who was shouting these slogans, and not assaulting him,” Sharma had said. He had, however, warned that he would beat those people in future who are seen shouting pro-Pakistan slogans.
Apart from Sharma’s chargesheet, the police have filed two other chargesheets accusing three lawyers of assault and molestation.
They had registered four separate FIRs in connection with the violence at the Patiala House Courts complex on February 15 and 17 during which some lawyers attacked Kanhaiya Kumar, along with some women and journalists.
The police filed the three chargesheets on July 19 before metropolitan magistrate Snigdha Sarvaria, who posted the matter for hearing on September 22.
In the first chargesheet filed on the February 15 incident in which journalists were assaulted, the police accused three lawyers—Vikram Singh Chauhan, Yashpal Singh and Om Sharma—of rioting, criminal intimidation, causing hurt and mischief. The cops said that three lawyers were instigating the mob that attacked journalists.