‘Arrested like a terrorist…’ : BJP’s Tajinder Bagga slams Arvind Kejriwal

BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga – arrested last week by Punjab Police over alleged threats to Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal – on Wednesday claimed he had been treated ‘like a terrorist’ because he had asked the Aam Aadmi Party chief about promises to act against the accused in the 2015 Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege case, as well as against the drug mafia and Khalistani separatists.

The AAP is in power in both Delhi and Punjab – where it recorded a thumping win in February polls – with Kejriwal heading the government in the national capital and Bhagwant Singh Mann in Punjab.

“I will continue to ask Kejriwal questions… whether one or 1,000 cases are registered against me,” Bagga said at the BJP’s Delhi office in his first press conference since his dramatic arrest.

Last week the police of three states – Punjab, Haryana and Delhi – faced-off in a barely-believable turn of events triggered by Bagga’s arrest from his residence in the national capital’s Janakpuri. 

On his way to AAP-ruled Punjab the police team was intercepted in Haryana’s Kurukshetra after Delhi Police – which reports to the union home ministry and not the AAP government – filed a case of attempted kidnapping against their Punjab counterparts. Bagga was then brought back to Delhi.

“I was arrested like a terrorist. Was it my fault to ask Kejriwal about his promise to arrest accused in Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege… was it my fault to ask him about action against drug mafia and separatists raising slogans of Khalistan in Punjab…” the BJP leader said.

On Tuesday the Punjab and Haryana high court gave Bagga extended protection from arrest.

“Given concessions made by the learned advocate general, warrants of arrest issued against the petitioner by the court concerned (in Punjab’s Mohali) in the present FIR shall not be executed till the next date of hearing,” Justice Anoop Chitkara said at a hearing convened at his home.

“Furthermore, no coercive steps shall be taken against the petitioner till the next date of hearing.”

Bagga, now, is protected from arrest till July 5.

With input from PTI