Mir Farhat
SRINAGAR, Mar 11: In a major blow to the political take off of Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Kashmir, its candidate for Lok Sabha elections, Raja Muzaffar Bhat is facing charges of molesting a woman, including several criminal charges, in central Kashmir’s Budgam district.
Bhat along with his five associates on Feb 27, 2010, had allegedly beaten up a woman and torn her clothes when they entered into a scuffle with her son outside her residence in Branwar area of Budgam district after some unknown persons had deflated a tyre of Bhat’s car outside the victim’s house.
The woman filed a complaint with the police in Chadoora police station, but police didn’t register the complaint, forcing the victim to knock the court of Judicial Magistrate, Chadoora on March 12, 2010.
Acting on the court directions, police filed an FIR 34/2010, against Bhat and his associates under Section 354 (assault or criminal force on a woman with the intention to outrage her modesty), 341(Punishment for wrongful restrain), 323 (Punishment for voluntarily causing hurt), 427 (Mischief causing damage to the amount of Rs 50), 148 (Rioting, armed with deadly weapon) Ranbir Panel Code.
After investigations, which took police three years, they filed a charge sheet in 2013 against Bhat and his other associates in Budgam district court.
Bhat, however, told Excelsior that he was implicated in false and fabricated case for his crusade against corruption. “The false case has been filed against me on the behest of a National Conference staunch worker and a Minister from the district. Even the two witnesses of the prosecution turned hostile,” he said.
Bhat was also backed by the NGOs, which he has been associated with. They shot letters to the Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, and blamed NC workers for implicating him in sexual molestation case of the woman.
Director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative (CHRI), Maja Daruwala, in an emailed statement, to the Chief Minister has said that he (Bhat) and eight of his colleagues have allegedly been implicated in a false criminal case registered at the direction of the Chadoora Judicial Magistrate’s Court.
Whistleblowers India’s Secretary Rajesh Darak in a letter to Omar had said that “it is shocking that your party workers are getting false cases registered against selfless social workers such as Muzaffar Bhat and others with the sole motive to muzzle their anti-corruption drive”.
“It is suspected that your party’s local MLA who is also the Finance Minister is tacitly supporting the corrupt. His PA Rather had in fact called up the SHO in order to illegally influence the course of justice,” Darak has written to the CM.
Bhat, who was a Right to Information Act (RTI) activist before foraying into politics, was recently announced AAP’s candidate 2014 Lok Sabha elections from Srinagar-Budgam-Ganderbal constituency against National Conference patron Dr Farooq Abdullah.
Earlier, he had a brief stint with People’s Democratic Party but he immediately left the party after the execution of Parliament attack convict Muhammad Afzal Guru on February 9, 2013.
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