MEA says Ugandan mission has denied reaching out to Delhi government

NEW DELHI: Seeking vindication over the controversial raid conducted at Khirki Extension a few days ago, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that Law Minister Somnath Bharti had the support of the Ugandan High Commission. However, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin contradicted him saying that the Ugandan mission had denied reaching out to the Delhi government and warned the media against giving credence to “rumours”.

Foreign minister Salman Khurshid went a step ahead and accused the AAP government of trying to “spoil India’s relation with friendly countries”. Speaking to his supporters just before staging a dharna right outside the Railway Ministry, Kejriwal said that a “woman from the Ugandan mission” had met Mr Bharti and praised his midnight raid targeting African women over allegations of a sex and drug racket.

ET could not independently confirm whether an official of the Ugandan mission has indeed visited the minister and Bharti refused to disclose her identity. “The woman came (from the Ugandan High Commission) last evening and told him ‘you did very well, many women from our country are being trafficked’. She brought this letter,” said Kejriwal while waving the letter to his supporters.

The letter, which is an internal communication between the Defence Advisor of the Ugandan High Commission and the Chief of its Military Intelligence dated June 19, 2013, talks about the case of a Ugandan woman who was brought to India on the pretext of a job but was trapped in a sex racket.

The letter, as per AAP leader Yogendra Yadav, lent credence to the midnight vigil carried out by Bharti and hinted that there was something indeed amiss in Khirki extension in Bharti’s constituency. Brushing aside allegations levelled by Ugandan women that Bharti’s supporters forced one of them to give her urine sample in public, Yadav said that there was no evidence in this regard.