SPEAKER OF DELHI ASSEMBLY CONVICTED IN TRESPASS CASE

NEWDELHI: A Delhi court on Friday convicted Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, his son Sumit Goel and three others for allegedly trespassing a property in east Delhi’s Vivek Vihar in 2015 and creating ruckus.

Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Samar Vishal said the offence under Section 448 has been clearly made out and all the accused can be punished for it. The judge said the prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt.

The punishment under Section 448 of the IPC is a jail term of one year or fine or both. The court also convicted Sumit Goel, son of the speaker, additionally for section 323 of the IPC.

It, however, said the accused persons could not be convicted for mischief punishable under section 427 of the IPC for the lack of direct evidence.

“To conclude, the prosecution has been able to prove its case beyond reasonable doubts... Accordingly, Ram Niwas Goel, Sumit Goyal, Hitesh Khanna, Atul Gupta and Balbir Singh are convicted for offence under Section 448 of the IPC...” the court said. The matter will be now heard on October 18 where arguments for the quantum of sentence will be advanced.

Reacting to the judgment, Goel said the matter is subjudice and he would not comment. According to an FIR registered on a complaint by a local builder, Manish Ghai, Goel and his supporters had raided one of Ghai’s houses in Vivek Vihar on the night of February 6, 2015, a day before the Delhi Assembly elections.

Goel had allegedly raided Ghai’s house, accusing him of stashing liquor, blankets and other things for distribution ahead of the polls, the FIR had said. A case of rioting, trespassing, causing mischief and voluntarily causing hurt was lodged.

The AAP leaders had refuted these claims, saying they had gone to the house with a police team. Ghai alleged that the group broke items in the house. When the labourers tried to resist, they were allegedly assaulted.