New Delhi: In a reprieve for Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, the Punjab and Haryana high court, late on the night of May 7, Saturday, directed that no coercive step should be taken against the Bharatiya Janata Party leader until May 10.
Bagga had sought a stay on an arrest warrant issued by a Mohali court earlier on Saturday in the case registered against him by Punjab Police last month.
Justice Anoop Chitkara took up Bagga’s petition in an urgent hearing at his residence in Chandigarh just before midnight.
“No coercive steps till May 10,” said Bagga’s counsel Chetan Mittal on the high court order. The hearing took place for around 45 minutes, said Mittal.
The high court will to take up Bagga’s petition, seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him last month, on May 10.
Earlier on Saturday, the court of Judicial Magistrate Ravtesh Inderjit Singh issued an arrest warrant against Bagga in connection with a case registered last month.
The Punjab Police had booked Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga on the charges of making provocative statements, promoting enmity and criminal intimidation. The case was registered on a complaint of Aam Aadmi Party leader Sunny Ahluwalia, a resident of Mohali.
The FIR registered on April 1 referred to Bagga’s remarks on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.
Bagga was booked under sections 153-A (promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place etc), 505 (whoever makes, publishes or circulates any statement, rumour or report) and 506 (criminal intimidation), of the Indian Penal Code.
Bagga was arrested by the Punjab Police from his Delhi home on Friday, May 6. But police taking him to Punjab were stopped in Haryana. The Punjab and Haryana high court refused Punjab Police’s plea to keep him in Haryana. He was brought back to the national capital by Delhi Police hours later on the same day.
(With PTI inputs)