The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday granted Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga protection from arrest till July 6.

Bagga has been accused of making provocative statements about Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. The BJP leader has been booked for promoting enmity and criminal intimidation.

A single-judge bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara, however, allowed the Punjab Police to continue its investigation in the case. The judge said that the police can only interrogate Bagga at his Delhi home and that too twice till the matter is heard next.

Advertisement

“The petitioner [Bagga] shall be interrogated only for one hour each time between 10 am to 5 pm in the presence of his counsel,” Justice Chitkara said. “The investigation team shall not consist of more than three persons and it shall be led by an officer not below the rank of an IPS [Indian Police Service] officer.”

The court has posted the matter for further hearing on July 6.

Meanwhile, Delhi’s BJP unit chief Adesh Gupta thanked the court for the order. He described the order as a “victory for justice, and a defeat for arrogance”.

Advertisement

Bagga was earlier granted relief till Tuesday by the High Court in the case at a midnight hearing on May 7.

This came a day after the Punjab Police had arrested the BJP leader from his New Delhi home on a complaint filed by Aam Aadmi Party leader Sunny Singh Ahluwalia.

Ahluwalia had claimed that Bagga had threatened 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”.

Bagga, however, could be not brought back to Punjab as the police team was stopped in Haryana on May 6. Preetpal Singh Bagga, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga’s father, had filed a kidnapping case with the Delhi Police and alleged that the BJP leader had been manhandled by the Punjab Police.

Hours later, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was brought back to the national capital by the Delhi Police.