3 states get involved amid escalating row over BJP's Tajinder Bagga's arrest

Tajinder Pal Bagga arrest: The BJP leader's arrest has triggered a huge controversy.

Amid high political drama over BJP leader Tajinder Pal Bagga's arrest, the Delhi and Haryana Police have swung into action against the Punjab Police move. While the Delhi Police has filed a kidnapping case against the Punjab Police, the Haryana Police on Friday afternoon stopped a team of cops taking the 36-year-old leader to Mohali where he was supposed to be produced in a court.

Tajinder Pal Bagga arrest: The Haryana Police on Friday stopped a team of cops taking Bagga to Mohali. 

Bagga was arrested from his West Delhi home on Friday morning over a case filed in Punjab. He has been accused by the Aam Aadmi Party of threatening Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.   

A letter and a copy of FIR is being shared with the director general of police in Haryana to inform him about the circumstances of Bagga's arrest. The Punjab Police have also denied the kidnapping charge.

Bagga’s family, however, said that the Delhi Police was not informed about the arrest. Visuals shared by news agency ANI showed the cops from the state ruled by the AAP’s Bhagwant Mann sitting at a Delhi police station with Bagga.

Tajinder Pal Bagga is the national secretary of the BJP's youth wing.  He is also Delhi BJP spokesperson. The Punjab Police on Friday claimed that Bagga did not join a probe over the case filed against him. According to the AAP, the BJP leader had tried to get a relief from the court earlier but the court denied it. 

The BJP’s Manjinder Singh Sirsa, addressing a press briefing in Delhi on Friday afternoon, called the arrest “vendetta politics”. “This nation is run by a constitution… not by whims and fancies of Arvind Kejriwal,” Sirsa said.

He also alleged that the Punjab Police's move was linked to announcement by Arvind Kejriwal on the power subsidy in the national capital. Also, he added, the Bhagwant Mann-government wanted to take the focus away from arrests by Haryana on Thursday linked to separatists. “Reaction was being anticipated over both of these. They would have faced questions over the return of Khalistanis to Punjab. And hence, to take the focus away, the AAP conspired to arrest him."

Countering the BJP’s claims, the AAP’s Saurabh Bharadwaj at a presser said: “Tajinder Bagga tweets to instigate violence in Punjab; it means BJP leaders in Delhi trying to spread communal violence in Punjab.Punjab Police working to maintain peace in the state. The public is seeing Delhi Police and Haryana Police trying to protect such goons.”

(With inputs from ANI)