The Punjab police on Friday arrested BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga from his residence in Delhi in connection with making allegedly inflammatory statements to flare up communal enmity.
The police in a statement said that an FIR was registered against Mr. Bagga on April 1, 2022 under Sections 153 A, 505, 505(2), 506 of the Indian Penal Code at the Punjab State Cyber Crime wing at Mohali in S.A.S Nagar district.
He has been accused of causing instigation-incitement-criminal intimidation to cause violence, use of force, and imminent hurt in a predesigned and orchestrated manner by making-publishing provocative, false and communal inflammatory statements through his interview given to the media and through his posts on Twitter, said the statement.
The police said the 36-year-old Bagga was served five notices under Section 41 A of the Cr.PC to come and join the investigation, but despite the notices, the accused deliberately did not join the investigation, added the statement.
“Today morning following due process of law, the accused has been arrested from his home in Janakpuri, New Delhi. He is being brought here and will be produced in court. Further investigation is on,” said the statement.
Vehicles bringing Mr. Bagga, from Delhi to Mohali got held up in Haryana’s Kurukshetra. Sources said the vehicles have been taken to a police station in Kurukshetra’s Pipli.
Asked why the Punjab police team had been stopped, a Haryana police official said there was information that Mr. Bagga had been “forcibly” picked up from his residence. “We have to verify and crosscheck these things,” he said. Senior Haryana police officials were present at the spot.
The BJP leaders criticised the police action. BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh flayed the Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi and Punjab for their “Hitler-like action of arresting BJP’s Delhi spokesperson Tajinder Bagga”.
“It is a criminal act of Kejriwal to which Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann is playing a meek second fiddle”, Mr. Chugh said.
The case was registered against Mr. Bagga for allegedly making statements on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside the Chief Minister’s residence in Delhi.
As the situation escalated, the Delhi Police registered a case of kidnapping based on a complaint by Mr. Bagga’s father. A Delhi Police team took the custody of Mr. Bagga in Kurukshetra from the Punjab police.
The Punjab Police team was stopped in Kurukshetra’s Pipli, with a Haryana Police official saying they had information that Bagga was “forcibly” picked up from his residence. A Delhi Police team reached Kurukshetra, took Mr. Bagga’s custody and left for the national capital, a Kurukshetra police official said over the phone..
(With inputs from PTI)
