Aam Aadmi Party leader Somnath Bharti refuted the allegations of domestic violence levelled by his wife Lipika Mitra. Bharti accused his wife of putting forward a demand to evict his (Bharti’s) mother from their house.
“I don’t know what prompted her to file such a complaint but for the last five years, she has been demanding that I choose between my mother and her. In this old age, where do I send my mother? I have been in South India for party work. I love her, I love the children but this demand I cannot meet. Where do I send my mother? She has no other place to go to,” Bharti told a news agency.
“She has also demanded that I leave politics, because since I joined politics, I have had zero time for my family. I understand her pain but this should have been sorted out sitting together, not by going public,” he added.
Bharti further stated that the allegations against him have ‘no substance’.
“Whatever allegations of domestic violence she has accused me with are all baseless and have no substance in them. I do not know what transpired,” he said.
Earlier in the day, wife of senior AAP leader Somnath Bharti approached the Delhi Commission for Women, accusing the Malviya Nagar legislator of domestic abuse.
“I can’t explain in a couple of words what I have been going through. It has been going on since 2010. I want to be out of this marriage,” Bharti’s wife Lipika Mitra said.
“I want separation, and to live with my children with dignity”, Mitra added.
The DCW has issued a notice to Bharti, a former Law Minister in the first AAP government in the national capital. He has been asked to appear before the panel on June 26.