Punjab Police on Friday arrested Bharatiya Janata Party leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga from his residence in the national capital over charges of communal inflammatory statements, promoting religious enmity, and criminal intimidation.
The Punjab police said that they had sent Bagga five notices to join the investigation but he "deliberately" chose not to do so.
"Today morning following due process of law, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was arrested from his home in Janakpuri, New Delhi. He is being brought here (Sahibzada Ajit Singh Nagar, Punjab) and will be produced in court," Punjab Police said.
They further informed that an FIR was registered on May 1 by Punjab State Cyber Crime, SAS Nagar against Tajinder Bagga on the complaint of causing instigation, criminal intimidation to cause violence and imminent hurt by publishing false, and communal inflammatory statements on social media.
"The accused was served five notices to come and join the investigation. The notices were duly served upon. In spite of that, the accused deliberately did not join the probe," Punjab Police said.
Further, the police said that the investigation is being done by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of SAS Nagar Police.
This morning Bagga's father claimed that he was punched in his face while he attempted to capture a video on his mobile phone of police personnel detaining his son.
Talking to news agency ANI, he said, "This morning, 10-15 police personnel came to our home and dragged Tajinder out. When I picked up my mobile phone to record a video of the incident, police took me to another room and punched me in the face."
Bagga is the national secretary of the BJP's youth wing was taken to the Janakpuri Police Station.
BJP has alleged that the AAP government is misusing power to target its political opponents.
BJP IT department head Amit Malviya tweeted: "Arvind Kejriwal's brazen misuse of Punjab Police to target political opponents is not unexpected. He had been raging for this. But this won't go down well. We will fight to secure every single karyakarta of ours and ensure that Kejriwal learns how to handle power the hard way..."
BJP's National General Secretary (Organisation) BL Santhosh also condemned the arrest, and said, "Punjab Police is being used as personal mafia of Arvind Kejriwal. We condemn the arrest of Tajinder Bagga and assault on his father by police at the insistence of Aam Aadmi Party. Soon Karma will catch you."
( With inputs from ANI )
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