As the political atmosphere continues to be heated, Congress’ Navjot Singh Sidhu came out in support of Tajinder Singh Bagga of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Friday. Taking to Twitter, Siddhu accepted that Bagga may belong to a different political party, and have a different political ideology, but what the Aam Aadmi Party supremo and Punjab Chief Minister were doing by getting him arrested was nothing but ‘political vendetta’.
“But Political vendetta, of Arvind Kejriwal & Bhagwant Mann, to settle personal scores through Punjab police is a cardinal sin… Stop tarnishing the image of the Punjab Police by Politicising it,” the cricketer-turned-batsman wrote on Twitter. Delhi BJP spokesperson and the national secretary of BJYM, Bagga was arrested by the Punjab Police from his home in Janakpuri, Delhi, in connection with an FIR registered on April 1.
In the FIR filed on the complaint of AAP’s Sunny Singh Ahluwalia, he has been booked under section 153A (Promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth, residence, language, etc., and doing acts prejudicial to maintenance of harmony), 505 (Statements conducing to public mischief), 505(2) and 506 (Punishment for criminal intimidation).
Intra-state fight on Tajinder Bagga’s arrest
Earlier in the day, Republic accessed exclusive visuals of the arrest episode. In the visuals, a group comprising over 50 policemen were seen arriving at Tajinder Singh Bagga’s residence early in the morning. The large group were then seen barging into his residence, and later, were seen taking him out and forcefully pushing him into the convoy.
The Delhi Police on getting information about the arrest of Bagga, filed an FIR against the Punjab Police under Sections 452 (trespass), 365 (kidnap or abduction), 342 (wrongful confinement), 392 (robbery), 295 (act to outrage religious feelings) 34 (acts done by several people in furtherance of common intention) of the IPC.
The Delhi Police then alerted the Poice in Haryana, which went and stopped the Punjab police in Kurukshetra, near Pipli. The custody of the BJP leader was then handed over to the Delhi Police. He is most likely to be produced before the Delhi’s Dwarka Court on Saturday.