'Delhi women's panel chief Cong member, media takes money from Modi'

In the eye of a storm, controversial Delhi Law Minister Somnath Bharti on Saturday accused the media of taking money from Narendra Modi and slammed the Delhi Commission for Women.

Bharti, who had chosen to attend a kite flying festival instead of appearing before the Delhi Commission of Women on Friday after he was summoned for the midnight raid episode, charged that the women's commission is "political".

Attacking DCW chief Barkha Singh, he said, "Barkha Singh is a Congress member...She should have resigned herself after her government's term ended".

Terming all the reports against him as false, the law minister threatened, "They are trying to defame me, I am going to take them to the court."

However, later he apologised for his remarks against the media, saying he didn't want to hurt anyone.

As reporters continued to question him over the controversy surrounding him, he accused them of taking money from the Gujarat chief minister.

"How much money have you received from Modi?" he shot back.

The DCW had on Friday summoned Bharti following allegations that the Delhi minister led a group of Aam Aadmi Party workers who misbehaved with a number of African women on the pretext of a raid on an alleged drug and prostitution ring in South Delhi last week.

The law minister was asked to depose before the commission to explain the charges against him but he sent his lawyers, who said he was absent due to "some urgencies".

Bharti's lawyers and the Commission Chief Singh, a former Congress MLA, had a public confrontation at the DCW office after she refused to allow them to present the minister's response.

The Aam Aadmi Party had on Friday said in a statement that it "strongly disapproved of the politicisation of the office of Delhi Commission for Women by its chairperson".