4 Arrested In Chhattisgarh Over Rally In Support Of Amritpal Singh

Four persons have been arrested in Raipur over a rally taken out in the city allegedly in support of "Waris Punjab De' chief Amritpal Singh, police said.

The arrests took place on Thursday. The accused, all residents of the Chhattisgarh's capital city have been identified as Diler Singh Randhwa (46), Manindarjeet Singh alias Mintu Sandhu alias Harinder Singh Khalsa (44) and Harpreet Singh Randhawa alias Chintu (42).

"Based on the investigation findings coupled with inputs gathered through footage from CCTV cameras installed at the spot, Raipur's Civil Lines police registered an offence under sections 147, 153(A), 504 and 505(1)(b) of Indian Penal Code (IPC) and arrested four persons", Raipur Police said in a statement.

"First, they were served notice but their replies were not satisfactory and to avoid any law and order situation, the action was taken", Additional Superintendant of Police, Raipur told ANI.

The issue was raised in Chhattisgarh Assembly on Thursday as BJP MLA Ajay Chandrakar sought a discussion on it by moving an adjournment motion notice.

Chandrakar alleged that a rally was taken out in support of Khalistan. Joining him on the issue, BJP MLAs questioned how such a rally was taken out and slammed police for its alleged intelligence failure.

Reportedly, BJP MLAs sought the Chief Minister's statement on the issue.

As the notice was rejected, Opposition members started shouting slogans seeking the chief minister's reply following which the proceeding was adjourned for five minutes. After the House resumed, BJP legislators again raised the issue following which Minister Ravindra Choubey said that the CM will give a statement regarding the rally in the House later.

In his statement in the house, chief minister Bhupesh Bhagel said around 30-35 people took out a foot march raising slogans from the Telibandha area without permission. Police have been directed to examine the video footage of it.

"Action will be taken against those, who were found raising anti-national slogans in the video during the rally", Chief Minister Baghel said.

The chief minister said, "As far as the Sikh community is concerned, their sacrifices for the country cannot be ignored but anti-national activities will not be allowed to take place."

Meanwhile, BJP MLA Ajay Chandrakar said that Bhagel's statement should be taken as a resolution and be passed in the House. Later, another BJP MLA Brijmohan Agrawal said such a rally was taken out in two places in the country first in Punjab and then in Raipur and the incident has maligned the image of Chhattisgarh, therefore the statement of CM should be considered as a resolution and his part support it.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)