BJP leader Bony detained for ‘collecting personal data’

BJP leader Amarpal Singh Bony, district rural president of the party, was detained by Punjab Police when he along with his supporters was holding a camp at Thoba village in Ramdass area under the party’s public outreach programme here on Thursday.

Bony was detained at the Ramdass police station and released later in the evening. Agitated over the ‘illegal’ detention of Bony, his supporters and party leaders staged a dharna outside the police station and raised slogans against the alleged high-handedness of the ruling AAP party.

The BJP had recently launched a campaign under — BJP de Sewadar aa Gaye Tuhade Dwaar – to drum up support ahead of the 2027 assembly elections. Bony said they had been organising camps to apprise the public of various Central Government schemes and facilitating them to avail these schemes. He said they had already organised 19 such camps in various villages and today was the 20th camp.

The saffron party had accused the AAP-led state government of forcibly stopping them. Several BJP leaders were stopped from organizing such camps in all over the state leading to sharp criticism and condemnation by the BJP leadership.

SSP, Amritsar (Rural), Maninder Singh said they have instructions from the state government to properly probe such camps as private individuals at the behest of certain political parties and that they were taking the personal data of people which could potentially be misused. He said the action has been taken for verification under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023.

Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioner Sakshi Sawhney said the Punjab Government had received some credible information that certain private individuals were allegedly taking the personal data of local residents in an illegal manner.

She warned that as per the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, taking and collecting personal information was a punishable act and the police have been instructed to take appropriate action against those indulging in the illegal act. She urged the people not to share their personal information with any individual or agency which can misuse the information leading to financial frauds. She also appealed to them to inform the district administration if anybody was collecting their information.