NEW DELHI, May 7: A day after the high-voltage drama during which Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was “arrested” and then “rescued” by the police of three states, the Mohali district court on Saturday issued a non-bailable warrant against the BJP leader in connection with a case registered against him on April 1 of inflammatory posts in the social media.
His arrest and forcible release on Friday had pitted the Punjab police against the Haryana and Delhi police and had led to a political slugfest between the BJP, which control the Haryana and Delhi police, and AAP, in-charge of the Punjab police. Bagga was arrested from his Janakpuri residence on Friday morning, but the journey to take him to Punjab was cut short with police in Haryana intercepting the Punjab Police convoy at the instruction from the Delhi police which had registered an FIR of abduction against the Punjab police and eventually managing to bring Bagga back from Kurukshetra to the national capital.
On Saturday, the court of Judicial Magistrate (1st class) Ravtesh Inderjit Singh issued a non-bailable warrant for Bagga and posted the matter for May 23. While delivering the order, the court said, “It is necessary in the interest of justice to issue non- bailable warrants for accused Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who is evading arrest, in order to facilitate the investigation.”
The order also directed police to arrest Bagga and produce him before the court. The order further said the Mohali DSP Sukhnaaz Singh informed the court that a petition to quash the FIR against Bagga was pending before the High Court to be taken up on May 10. He told the court there was no stay regarding his arrest nor has any anticipatory bail application been moved by him. He also informed the court that a habeas corpus petition filed by the State of Punjab was pending before the High Court, which is also connected with the present FIR.
The court was also told that Bagga was served five notices by the police but had failed to join the investigation. The court was told that the investigating team went to Delhi on May 6 to arrest Bagga and he was arrested from his house, with his father being intimated of the same. DSP Kuljinder Singh along with the police party also went to Janakpuri police station to give necessary intimation but no DDR entry was made by the police station, the court was told.
“When the police party was bringing the accused, so as to be produced before the court at Mohali, they were stopped by Kurukshetra police and taken to police station Thanesar Sadar. At about 02:30 pm, Parshant Gautam, IPS, Additional DCP-1, West New Delhi, came along with police force and got the accused released forcibly and illegally,” the court was told.
The case against Bagga is based on a complaint by Dr Sunny Singh Ahluwalia, a dentist and AAP Punjab spokesperson and party in-charge of Anandpur Sahib Lok Sabha constituency. The FIR quotes Ahluwalia as saying that comments made by Bagga in the media and on Twitter amounted to “criminal intimidation… to cause violence… imminent hurt to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and other AAP leaders in a pre-designed, well planned, orchestrated manner.”
(Manas Dasgupta)
