In a midnight hearing on Saturday, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said that no coercive action will be taken against Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga till May 10, The Indian Express reported.
“The HC has granted relief to Bagga, and has ordered no coercive action shall be taken against him till the next hearing on May 10,” said senior Advocate Anil Mehta, who is representing Bagga, reported The Indian Express.
Bagga has been charged with allegedly making provocative statements against Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP leader has also been booked for promoting enmity and criminal intimidation.
Bagga had moved the High Court, seeking a stay on the arrest warrant issued against him by a Mohali court on Saturday.
Punjab Advocate General Anmol Rattan Sidhu said that he will not execute the arrest warrant till May 10.
“It is on the concession by the state government,” Sidhu said, The Indian Express reported. “We told the court that there was no urgency to arrest him. Hence, we can wait till Tuesday.”
The case against Bagga
On Friday, the Punjab Police arrested Bagga from his home in New Delhi. After a complaint was filed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Sunny Singh Ahluwalia.
Ahluwalia had complained that Bagga allegedly threatened Aam Aadmi Party leader Arvind Kejriwal during a protest outside the chief minister’s residence on March 30. During the protest, Bagga had allegedly told television channels that “he would not let Kejriwal live”.
The Punjab Police were stopped in Haryana while they were taking Bagga to Punjab on Friday. Preetpal Singh Bagga, Bagga’s father, had filed a kidnapping case with the Delhi Police alleging that the BJP leader had been manhandled by the Punjab Police.
Hours later, Bagga was brought back to the national Capital by the Delhi Police.
AAP MLA Atishi Marlena said in a press conference that the actions of the BJP and the police forces of Delhi and Haryana showed the true face of the saffron party. “When a goon is caught, the BJP deploys its entire organisation to defend the person, as the BJP itself is a party of goons and rioters,” she said.
Bagga was appointed as a BJP spokesperson in 2017 after he shot to prominence for staging violent demonstrations and posting provocative social media content. In 2018, Bagga had put up a poster in Delhi’s ITO, calling former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi the “father of mob lynching”.
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