Trouble is not over for BJP leader Tajinder Singh Bagga as he faces fresh arrest as a court in Mohali on Saturday issued a warrant against him in connection with a case registered against him last month.
A day after he was arrested by the Punjab Police and released within hours after the convoy was stopped near Kurukshetra in Haryana, the arrest warrant was issued by the court of Judicial Magistrate Ravtesh Inderjit Singh in Mohali, near Chandigarh.
“Whereas Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, s/o Pritpal Singh, r/o B-1/170, Janak Puri New Delhi stands charged with the offence punishable U/Sec 153-A, 505, 505 (2), 506 IPC. You are hereby directed to arrest the said Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and to produce him before me,’’ the judge said in the order in a direction to the officer incharge of the police station, State cyber crime.
The court fixed the next date of hearing on May 23. This means the Punjab Police will have to arrest Bagga or the BJP leader would have to seek relief from a higher court to prevent the arrest.
Bagga was arrested by the Punjab Police from his Delhi home on Friday, stopped in Haryana while being taken to Punjab and brought back to the national Capital by the Delhi Police hours later.
The Delhi Police had on Friday registered a case of kidnapping based on a complaint by Bagga’s father Pritpal Singh Bagga that ‘’some people’’ came over to his house around 8 am and took away his son.
Friday’s dramatic developments saw police forces of Punjab, Haryana and Delhi getting into a tussle over Bagga while triggering a political slugfest.The Punjab Police had booked Bagga on the charges of making provocative statements, promoting enmity and criminal intimidation. The case was registered on a complaint of AAP leader Sunny Ahluwalia, a resident of Mohali. The FIR registered on April 1 referred to Bagga’s remarks on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Bagga was booked under relevant sections, including 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place etc), 505 (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report) and 506 (criminal intimidation), of the Indian Penal Code. The Punjab Police has maintained that a police team had gone to Delhi to arrest Bagga after he did not join the investigation despite being served five notices.
After its team, which was bringing Bagga from Delhi, was stopped in Haryana, the Punjab Police moved the high court and filed a habeas corpus petition. The Punjab Government on Saturday moved two applications before the Punjab and Haryana High Court here, seeking the Centre be made a party in the case, and that the May 6 CCTV footage of Janakpuri and Kurukshetra police stations be preserved.