Delhi: Known for his communal tones , BJP leader Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga was picked up by the Punjab Police on Friday morning in a dramatic sequence of events that continued till late afternoon. The arrest snowballed into a never-seen-before cat-and-mouse-chase over Bagga’s custody between the police forces of Punjab, Haryana, and Delhi.
A platoon of the Punjab Police descended on the BJP leader’s Delhi residence this morning in connection with a case registered against him by an Aam Aadmi Party leader, Sunny Singh Ahluwali, in Mohali last month. The AAP leader had alleged that Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga had made provocative statements, spread rumours, and tried to create religious and communal enmity, and that he allegedly threatened Arvind Kejriwal during a protest on March 30. Ahluwalia had also submitted statements and video clips of Bagga to the police.
Delhi Police left for Delhi with Tajinder Bagga. On the other hand, Punjab Police could be prosecuted for kidnapping Bagga and punching his father.
Not informing the Delhi Police went in Bagga’s favour. #TajinderBagga pic.twitter.com/25mUP2ulkJ— Shubhankar Mishra (@shubhankrmishra) May 6, 2022
Acting on this, the Punjab police barged into his Delhi home and placed him under arrest.
Soon after Bagga’s arrest, videos surfaced online showing the police grabbing Bagga by his arms and taking him away. In the videos, he is seen walking with the Punjab Police without a turban on his head. “He couldn’t even wear his turban,” Delhi BJP spokesperson Naveen Kumar Jindal later said, claiming that around 50 cops had come in to arrest Bagga.
In another short clip, Tajinder Bagga was seen sitting in a car flanked by policemen. He was wearing a black turban.
“We are shocked that when Punjab has a Sikh CM, a Sikh was taken away from his residence without a turban,” a BJP leader said during a press conference on Friday.
As the Punjab Police left with Bagga, the Delhi Police sprung into action, registering a case of abduction against their Punjab counterparts at the Janakpuri police station. Soon, the Haryana Police too entered the scene. The crime branch of Kurukshetra intercepted the Punjab Police’s convoy that was escorting Bagga to Mohali near the Khanpur Kolia National Highway-GT Road crossing and took them in for questioning.
BJP’s Tajinder Bagga arrested: Punjab Police stopped in Haryana, Delhi Police file abduction case
Read @ANI Story | https://t.co/wwkRwYD4Bi#TajinderBagga #Punjab #DelhiPolice pic.twitter.com/mXRePbEaUS
— ANI Digital (@ani_digital) May 6, 2022
The Delhi Police, which wasn’t far behind, then took over the custody of the BJP leader and brought him back to the national capital. As he was being escorted to the car by the Delhi police, Bagga made a victory sign with his fingers to the press and the cameras, who had been scurryingly following him around all day.
Massive twist to the Bagga arrest row!
BJP Neta #TajinderBagga handed over to Delhi Police & now is being taken back to the national capital.
Punjab Police DSP has also been detained by Delhi Police.@priyanktripathi with all the latest. pic.twitter.com/Z8DAa9RKFV
— TIMES NOW (@TimesNow) May 6, 2022
Tajinder Singh Bagga, who started out on the fringe, began his journey to the mainstream steadily. A massive Twitter following helped him.
In 2015, he was one of the #Super150 – a group of social media influencers hosted by PM Modi at his official residence on the sidelines of the Digital India launch.
The BJP leader had in 2011 launched “Operation Prashant Bhushan” – Bagga entered the lawyer’s chambers and attacked him for his alleged separatist remarks. Then a core member of Team Anna, Bhushan had called for a referendum on Kashmir, setting off a political fight between the Congress and the BJP, who accused Team Anna of being the other’s “B-team”. The same year, he had disrupted Arundhati Roy’s book launch, calling her works “pro-Kashmir azaadi”.
His group has defaced walls around the Pakistan High Commission and put up posters demanding freedom for Balochistan.
He has also put up a massive poster of Rajiv Gandhi outside the BJP headquarters. The poster had five words along with Gandhi’s photo: “The father of mob lynching”.
Bagga is also a businessman and runs “T-Shirt Bhaiyya”, an online store that sells illustrated T-shirts, kurtas, jackets, items of home décor and jewellery. He has announced his next venture: “Kulhad Biryani: India’s First Jhatka Biryani Brand” as a counter to halal meat that is preferred by most Muslims.
He also cashed the ugly ‘human shield’ episode of Kashmir printing the photograph of abducted youth tied with an Army vehicle on his T-shirts and sold them to buyers.
Notably, Haryana is ruled by BJP, while Punjab and Delhi by AAP, but being a Union Territory Delhi Police is controlled by the Central Government.
