Chandigarh: Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday stayed the arrest of senior Punjab Congress leader Partap Singh Bajwa in the case of his `50 bombs’ remark, till the next date of hearing – April 22.
Bajwa, who is also leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Punjab assembly, had moved Punjab and Haryana High Court on Tuesday seeking quashing of the FIR registered against him over his recent remark. He had recently said in an interview to a private television channel that he had come to know that 50 bombs had reached Punjab of which 18 had exploded while 32 were yet to explode.
Bajwa was booked by Punjab cyber crime police for this claim, under Sections 197 (1)(d) (false and misleading information that endangers the country’s sovereignty and unity) and 353(2) (false statements intend to create enmity and hatred or ill will), a non-bailable offence of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). A police team had on Sunday itself questioned him about the source of his statement. He was also quizzed for around six hours on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, lashing out at chief minister Bhagwant Mann over what they held as political vendetta against Bajwa, the top leaders of the party and a number of workers accompanied him to the Mohali police station where he had been summoned in connection with the case mentioned above on Tuesday.
The leaders included state Congress president Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi, former deputy chief minister Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, former Speaker Rana KP Singh, former minister Brahm Mohindra and others.
Warring held that what Bajwa had said in his interview, had already been reported by a leading Hindi daily giving a detailed list of grenade attacks, which were reported from different parts of the state, which were initially dismissed by the police as the tyre bursts and cylinder blasts.
