BJP leader arrest row: Punjab cops face resistance in Haryana, FIR in Delhi

Amid high political drama over BJP leader Tajinder Pal Bagga’s arrest, the Delhi and Haryana Police have swung into action against the Punjab Police move. While the Delhi Police has filed a kidnapping case against the Punjab Police, the Haryana Police on Friday afternoon stopped a team of cops taking the 36-year-old leader to Mohali where he was supposed to be produced in a court.

Bagga was arrested from his West Delhi home on Friday morning over a case filed in Punjab. He has been accused by the Aam Aadmi Party of threatening Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.   

Bagga’s family, however, said that the Delhi Police was not informed about the arrest. Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed the cops from the state ruled by AAP’s Bhagwant Mann were seen sitting at a Delhi police station with Bagga.

Bagga is the national secretary of the BJP’s youth wing. The Punjab Police on Friday claimed that Bagga did not join a probe over the case filed against him. According to the AAP, the BJP leader had tried to get a relief from the court earlier but the court refused him relief. 

The BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, addressing a press briefing in Delhi, called it “vendetta politics”. “This nation is run by a constitution… not by whims and fancies of Arvind Kejriwal,” Sirsa said.

He also alleged that the Punjab Police’s move was linked to announcement by Arvind Kejriwal on the power subsidy in the national capital. Also, he added, the Bhagwant Mann-government wanted to take the focus away from arrests by Haryana on Thursday linked to separatists. “Reaction was being anticipated over both of these. And hence, to take the focus away, the AAP conspired to arrest him.”