On Tajinder Bagga’s plea, Punjab and Haryana High Court rules no coercive action until May 10

The Punjab government cannot take any coercive action against BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga until May 10, the Punjab and Haryana High Court said in a midnight hearing.

The court will hear the case on the said date. Bagga had moved the High Court against a non-bailable warrant issued against him by a Mohali court on Saturday. The urgent hearing took place at the house of Justice Anoop Chitkara in Chandigarh.

Tajinder Bagga was arrested by the Punjab police on Friday morning for allegedly threatening Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. As he was taken to Mohali, the convoy was stopped by the Haryana police at Kurukshetra. After hours of negotiations, he was let go with the Delhi police.

Meanwhile, the Punjab government moved two applications in its habeas corpus plea making two demands — making the Centre a party in the case and directions to Delhi and Haryana police to preserve the CCTV camera footage linked to the matter.

On Friday, the state filed a habeas corpus plea alleging that the 12 Punjab police officers who arrested Bagga had been detained by the Haryana police.

Adjourning the matter, the Bench of Justice G.S. Gill sought a status report on or before Tuesday.

The Mohali court had issued an arrest warrant against Bagga and instructed the police to arrest him and produce him before the court.

Bagga, who reached his house early Saturday, claimed the police had barged into his house in large numbers and arrested him as if he was a terrorist. He claimed AAP filed an FIR on the basis of a cropped video from a television show where he had sought an apology from Kejriwal for his remarks on The Kashmir Files inside the Delhi Assembly. He termed his arrest as illegal detention, and said it was an attempt to send out a message that whosoever speaks against Arvind Kejriwal will not be spared.

Tajinder Bagga has been charged under 153A, 505, 505(2), and 506 sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC).