Chandigarh: The Delhi Police has taken custody of BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga in Kurukshetra from Punjab Police officials on Friday. Bagga was arrested earlier in the day by Punjab Police from his residence in Delhi.
The Punjab Police team was stopped in Kurukshetra's Pipli as a Haryana Police official claimed that they had received information that Bagga was "forcibly" picked up from his residence. "We have to verify and crosscheck these things," he said. Senior officials of Haryana Police were also present at the spot. A Kurukshetra police official said that the Delhi Police team reached the spot, took Bagga in custody, and left for the national capital.
Earlier in the day, the Delhi Police lodged a case of kidnapping after the leader's arrest. On the other hand, the Punjab government moved the High Court here against the "detention" of its team in Kurukshetra and subsequent developments that followed. Bagga was booked by Punjab Police last month for allegedly making provocative statements, promoting enmity, and criminal intimidation.
Reacting to the development, Mohali Senior Superintendent of Police said that the action of Haryana Police stopping Punjab Police officials returning from Delhi with Bagga was tantamount to "illegal detention". In a letter to the Kurukshetra Superintendent of Police, he also termed it an interference in the administration of the criminal justice system.
Pointing out that an FIR was lodged against Bagga last month and five notices were issued to him to join the investigation, Mohali SSP Vivek Sheel Soni stated in his letter to Kurukshetra SP "But he did not appear before the investigating team".
"That in accordance with the law, a police party was sent to arrest the accused Bagga. The said police party arrested the accused from his Delhi residence in the morning... it has come to my notice that the police party has been stopped by the Haryana Police on the Karnal-Kurukshetra highway. This is tantamount to illegal detention and interference in the administration of the criminal justice system," he added. The SSP also said that "the police party along with the arrested accused be released so that Bagga may be produced before the court in Mohali within time as per law."
(With agency inputs)
Also read: Punjab Police arrests Delhi BJP leader Tajinder Bagga; gets held up in Haryana
