This could be straight out of a Bollywood satire. A court in Delhi gave a clean chit to Aam Aadmi Party MLA Somnath Bharti's pet dog 'Don', after a panel found that the dog does not obey any of his master's commands, according to reports. Bharti was asked to call out commands such as "Don come", "Don bark", "Don sit" and "Don bite", among others.
But the dog did not respond to his master's commands, Additional Sessions Judge Anil Kumar said in his judgement. Bharti's wife Lipika Mitra had alleged that Bharti had set the dog on her when she was pregnant. But the court said that her allegations were "unfounded".
The court also observed that the recorded conversation regarding the alleged incident and the Labrador's subsequent examination by the vets reflected versions different than Mitra's allegations.
Kumar also said that the status report of the police and a copy of e-mails exchanged between Bharti and Mitra showed that only after a few days after the alleged incident, the pet had remained in her house and she that was "concerned of the responsibilities of the dog while the applicant (Bharti) was not there."
"This taking care of dog by the complainant was despite the fact, as alleged by her, that this dog assaulted her just one-two days before, on Bharti's command," the court said.
The police had picked up the dog from Bharti's Malviya Nagar residence on September 29.
There was a lot of buzz on social media when they realised that the dog suffered from a heart disease and was not being properly taken care of.
According to an earlier Indian Express report, the dog had been left behind at Bharti’s office and not been given his medicines, when Bharti went underground after the Delhi High Court rejected his anticipatory bail plea. But the police had later taken Don to a veterinary clinic to get the ailing dog examined.
Gulshan Kumar, Bharti’s associate, said, “After inquiring about the dog’s health, they asked where his medicines were. We said the medicines are in the cupboard which is locked. That's when we took the dog in their vehicle to a pet clinic," he told IE.
Regarding the injuries on Mitra, the judge said "I have gone through the police file also and find no medical evidence in support of the incident of alleged wrist slit of night intervening 27 and 28 May, 2015. There is only MLC dated 11 June, which only mentions about old cut marks but no external injury." Based on these allegation, police had booked Bharti for attempt to murder charges under section 307 of IPC and other charges.
(With inputs from PTI)
Contact HuffPost India