Former CPS Neeraj Bharti arrested on sedition charges

Lalit Mohan

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, June 26

Former Chief Parliamentary Secretary and Congress leader Neeraj Bharti was arrested by the state police today.

Sources here said that Bharti was called by the CID wing of Himachal police to Bharai in Shimla today for questioning in a sedition case registered against him. After questioning he was detained in the evening.

DIG crime wing of Himachal CID Vimal Gupta confirmed that Bharti has been arrested.

The father of Neeraj Bharti, and former Congress MP, Chander Kumar, when contacted, said his son has been arrested by the police after questioning. He said that it was a political vendetta. He was called for questioning by the CID and he went there. But after questioning they have arrested him. It was unfortunate that even political leaders were not being allowed to express their views on social media and cases were being registered against them, he said.

A case was registered against Neeraj Bharti on June 20 on the complaint of advocate Narinder Guleria, a resident of Annadale in Shimla who alleged that Bharti had posted three messages on Facebook within 24 hours which amounted to sedition and promoting enmity between different groups and intentional insult with an intent to provoke breach of peace.

The case was registered under Sections 124 A, 153 A 505 and 504 of the IPC at CID crime police station.

Bharti has been in controversy for quite some time due to his volatile social media posts. He had been targeting the BJP and even the Prime Minister Narendra Modi through his posts on social media. Even some Congress leaders were at the receiving end of his social media posts.

Neeraj Bharti has remained a Congress MLA from Jawali assembly constituency in Kangra district. His father Chander Kumar was a prominent OBC leader from Kangra. Bharti lost the last assembly election to Arjun Thakur of the BJP from Jawali Assembly constituency.