No arrest in Bajwa remarks case for now: Govt to HC

The government today told the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it had, as of now, no intention to arrest Leader of Opposition Partap Singh Bajwa in a case registered following his remarks on untraced grenades allegedly smuggled into the state.

As the matter came up for resumed hearing, Additional Advocate-General Deepinder Singh told Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya that no arrest would be made until May 7. Taking a note of the submission, the Bench adjourned the hearing in the matter, while granting the State additional time to file a detailed response. The Bench, at the same time, made it clear that the investigation would continue. A notice would precede any action, if warranted.

Seeking the quashing of the FIR registered in the matter, Bajwa submitted that he commented on the “deteriorating law and order situation, including recent bomb blasts in the state” after he appeared in a talk show on April 10.

He said the government seemed to be “sleeping over intelligence inputs”, while referring to untraced grenades allegedly smuggled from Pakistan as reported in a newspaper a day before. Following that, the CM publicly said that he had directed the police to locate the grenades mentioned by the petitioner as he purportedly had knowledge in that regard.

Based on a constable’s complaint, an FIR was registered alleging that the petitioner, through a Facebook interview, stated that 50 grenades had reached Punjab, of which 18 had been used and 32 were yet to be detonated. The complainant claimed the statement was misleading and aimed at spreading discontent.