Somnath Bharti accuses media of taking money from Modi, apologises later

New Delhi: 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 is embroiled in an escalating controversy over his 'midnight raid' and faced demands for his resignation, later backtracked and apologised after being slammed for his comment.

"I didn't mean to say that and if anybody is hurt I would like to apologise to them," he said. Bharti also claimed his statement was being 'misinterpreted'.

As reporters continued to question Bharti earlier in the day over the controversy surrounding him, he accused them of taking money from the Gujarat chief minister. "How much money have you received from Modiji?" he asked.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, who also targeted the media, however, admitted that Bharti's comments were 'inappropriate'.

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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."

Read here: Won't lodge fresh FIR in midnight raid case: Police to court

Bharti was slammed by political parties for his attack on the media.

"Now, if the media starts conveying to the people the indecent behaviour and the violation of laws and norms by his own law minister, why does he becomes so narrow minded that he starts abusing the very same media who had given him so much praise in the last few years," Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Harsh Vardhan said.

Read more: Bharti skips appearance at women's panel, attends kite fest

DCW had on Friday summoned Bharti following allegations that the Delhi minister led a group of AAP 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'.