Midnight Court Relief For BJP's Tajinder Bagga After New Arrest Warrant

The Punjab and Haryana High Court in a midnight hearing directed the Punjab government to not take any coercive action against BJP leader Tajinder Bagga until the next hearing on May 10.

The BJP leader had moved the high court challenging the non-bailable arrest warrant issued against him by a Mohali Court on Saturday, relating to a case registered against him on the charges of making provocative statements, promoting enmity and for alleged criminal intimidation.

The urgent hearing of the plea was held at the residence of Justice Anoop Chitkara in Chandigarh.

The arrest warrant was issued against Mr Bagga by the court of Judicial Magistrate Ravtesh Inderjit Singh. "Keeping in view the fact that sufficient opportunities have already been granted to the accused to join the investigation and despite the accused has failed to join the investigation. It is necessary in the interest of the justice to issue non-bailable warrants of the accused Tejinder Pal Singh Bagga for 23.05.2022, who is evading arrest, in order to facilitate the investigation," the judge said in the order.

Mr Bagga was taken into custody from his Delhi home by the Punjab police in connection with the same case on Friday morning amid high drama. However, his arrest was thwarted by the Delhi Police, which rushed to a court and obtained a search warrant based on the kidnapping complaint filed by Mr Bagga's father.

In his complaint, Mr Bagga's father alleged that "some people" came over to his house at around 8 am and took his son away.

The information related to the search warrant was then flashed by the Delhi Police in the region, after which the Haryana Police stopped the car in which Bagga was being taken to Punjab. Mr Bagga returned to his Janakpuri home in the early hours of Saturday after being produced before a Dwarka court magistrate, who ordered that he be released and allowed to go home.

Following the dramatic developments that led to a BJP-AAP slugfest, the Punjab police on Saturday morning approached the Mohali court and secured his arrest warrant.

The AAP rules Delhi and Punjab while the BJP governs Haryana. However, the Delhi Police comes under the Union Home Ministry and not the AAP-led Delhi government.

The FIR registered against Mr Bagga on April 1 referred to his remarks on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

Earlier today, Mr Bagga, reacting to his arrest and subsequent development, said he will continue to raise his voice against the AAP and its chief Arvind Kejriwal.

"No matter one or 100 FIRs are registered against me, I will keep raising issues of dishonouring of Guru Granth Sahib and Kejriwal's insult to Kashmiri Pandits," the BJP leader said.