Trouble for Tajinder Pal Bagga! Punjab court issues fresh arrest warrant

A court in Punjab's Mohali has issued a fresh arrest warrant against BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga in connection with a case registered last month. The development comes a day after high-level drama on Bagga's arrest over a tweet against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The arrest saw a cat and mouse game between the police department of Punjab, Delhi and Haryana.

While the Punjab police arrested Bagga, allegedly without taking the consent of local police, from Delhi; Bagga's family filed a kidnapping complaint against Punjab cops. Delhi police contacted Haryana police in the matter, that in response, stopped the Punjab police team mid-way. The Haryana Police handed over Bagga to Delhi police, and eventually, Bagga was released by the evening.

"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," Judicial Magistrate Ravtesh Inderjit Singh said in the order.

The BJP claimed that Bagga was arrested over political vendetta. However, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) defended Punjab Police's actions and claimed that Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was arrested from Delhi for trying to stoke communal tension and violence in Punjab.

Addressing a press conference, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the Punjab Police registered a case against Bagga last month after the BJP leader, through his social media posts, "tried to create communal tension and incite violence in the state".

Though Bharadwaj referred to the clashes in Patiala on April 29, the Punjab Police said it arrested the Delhi BJP spokesperson from his residence in the national capital in connection with a case registered in Mohali on April 1. The April 1 FIR referred to Bagga's remarks on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside the Delhi chief minister's residence.