Wife, I were living separately: Somnath Bharti

CHENNAI: Former Delhi law minister Somnath Bharti on Saturday refuted the allegations of his wife, Lipika, who moved Delhi Commission of Women, charging him with unleashing dogs on her when she was pregnant and subjecting her to physical and mental torture.
READ ALSO: Somnath Bharti unleashed dogs on me, alleges his wife Lipika
The AAP leader said there was no truth in charges of domestic violence. “The matter has brought deep pain in me … Allegations in the complaint are all untrue.There is no substance in it,” Bharti told mediapersons on the sidelines of a meeting of AAP volunteers in Chennai. "We got married in 2010 and since then we were not living together," Bharti said, adding that he could not accede to the demand of his wife to “stop serving his mother and motherland”. The Delhi commission for women has slapped him with a notice, asking him to appear before it by June 26.
READ ALSO: Somnath Bharti’s wife accuses him of abuse
Charging BJP with using the lieutenant governor Najeeb Jung to destabilize Delhi government, AAP MLA said the ongoing tussle was not between Jung and chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, but between the Delhi government and Narendra Modi-headed government at the Centre. “The lieutenant governor is basically acting as a front man,” Bharti said.
It was strange that the central government, which claimed to be committed to decentralization of power was scuttling the functioning of Delhi government, he said. Denying AAP the right to have its own choice of officers to run the administration amounted to sabotaging the democratic process in the state, he said.
READ ALSO: Delhi HC sets aside NHRC order against Somnath Bharti
Bharti, who is in charge of AAP affairs in Tamil Nadu, accused the ruling AIADMK of failing on all fronts. “I do not find a zeal or will power to solve the state problems permanently. It is in the blood of old time politicians that they want to keep the problems alive, so that the poor keep voting for them”. They were of the feeling that if problems were resolved permanently, then people would not vote for them again, he said and added the party would fight against corruption in Tamil Nadu.
Reacting to a query on AAP’s stand on its former minister Jitender Singh Tomar’s arrest in a fake certificate case, Bharti said, “First let BJP government start verifying the certificates of its own leaders. Let them start with Union HRD minister Smriti Irani.”

READ THIS IN HINDI: कोई हिंसा नहीं करता, पत्नी राजनीति छुड़ाना चाहती है: सोमनाथ