An FIR was registered against Somnath Bharti under sections 504 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code.

Delhi AAP MLA Somnath Bharti was on Wednesday booked for abusing a woman journalist during a live TV debate. Bharti, however, has claimed that the news channel was just "misusing" its power.

The FIR was lodged at a Noida police station on the complaint of the journalist who works for a private TV news channel. A police official said the journalist has accused him of calling her names.

"During a live TV debate, the Malviya Nagar MLA, Somnath Bharti, hurled abuses at me and told me to become a prostitute," said the journalist, who works as a news anchor with the TV channel, in her complaint to the police.

"I am a journalist and understand the responsibility while asking questions but he abused me and called me an agent of the BJP. He threatened to get our channel shut down. The kind of words he used for a woman were simply offensive and demeaning," she alleged.

"It is seen in a over two-minute video clip viral on social media, hearing the question, Bharti lost his temper and asked woman journalist to become a prostitute. He also abused her of being an agent and asked her to run a prostitution racket," The FIR said.

"The Aam Aadmi Party lawmaker was earlier accused of assaulting his wife and called her a BJP agent during the show," The FIR said.

"The woman also said in the FIR that Somnath Bharti mentally harassed her, insulted her modesty on a live show when she asked her the questions related to public domain grievances. She also demanded strict action against Bharti," Station House Officer Sita Singh said.

The complaint was lodged by the scribe at the Women Police Station in Noida and a First Information Report was registered against the MLA under sections 504 and 509 of the Indian Penal Code, the official said.

While Section 504 of the IPC lists the offence of heaping "intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace", section 509 pertains to "insulting a woman's modesty through words, gestures or an act," he said.

Bharti said he had joined the TV show over phone to discuss the attack on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal Tuesday, but the video was being presented with manipulation.

Now police has lodged an FIR against me u/s 504, 509 IPC on d basis of a manipulated audio provided by sudarshan news n with this, matter becomes subjudice but when wil police lodge FIR agnst Mr. Modi 4 refusing matrimonial rights 2 Jashodaben ji n 4 keeping her imprisoned?...1/2 Adv. Somnath Bharti (@attorneybharti) November 21, 2018

"I will file a defamation case against both the news anchor as well as the channel," Bharti told PTI.



The AAP MLA, who previously courted controversies by resorting to a midnight "raid" against an alleged sex racket involving African women in Delhi and who is facing a case of domestic violence lodged by his wife, alleged that the news channel was working at the behest of the BJP.

"We were discussing the life-threatening attack on Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Such cases show that the channel is part of the BJP and they are trying to distract people's attention from main issues, he claimed.

(With IANS and PTI inputs)

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