Two first information reports have been registered in Punjab against Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, days after he left the Aam Aadmi Party and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party’s legislature party in Parliament, The Hindu reported on Saturday.
The cases have been filed under non-bailable sections of the law, though there has been no official confirmation from the Punjab Police about the details, the Hindustan Times reported.
The AAP is in power in Punjab.
Pathak was among seven out of AAP’s ten Rajya Sabha MPs who split from the party and announced that they were joining the BJP’s legislature unit.
Efforts are being made to arrest Pathak, unidentified government officials told the Hindustan Times. However, the reasons behind the FIRs remain unclear.
Amid the reports, Pathak was on Saturday seen leaving his Delhi residence where reporters were waiting to ask him questions about the cases.
The BJP has accused the AAP leadership of targeting defectors.
The Hindutva party’s spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla described the cases as “vendetta politics” and alleged that the Punjab Police was being misused to settle political scores.
He questioned the timing of the FIRs, asking why no action had been taken earlier if the allegations were longstanding.
“What is baffling is the shameless, brazen vendetta politics being pursued by [AAP chief] Arvind Kejriwal, with [Chief Minister] Bhagwant Mann is becoming party to it,” Poonawalla said on social media.
Punjab BJP leaders made similar comments, with the party’s state unit chief Sunil Jakhar saying that the FIRs were part of a “planned conspiracy” to divert attention from a separate controversy involving Mann’s alleged conduct during a recent Assembly session, The Hindu reported.
He said a party delegation would raise the matter with the Governor Gulab Chand Kataria to “ensure transparency”.
Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa also questioned why alleged wrongdoing had not been acted upon when Pathak was part of the AAP. “The case of Sandeep Pathak is not about justice, it reeks of internal fallout within a system built on compromise,” The Hindu quoted him as saying.
Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia said that the timing of the FIRs raised “serious concerns” about intent.
Also read:
- Can the move by the 7 AAP MPs to merge with the BJP withstand legal scrutiny?
- Ramachandra Guha: How AAP has helped deepen Indian democracy
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