Punjab Rajya Sabha byelection: Ropar cops arrest rejected candidate Chaturvedi after two-day drama

Amid high drama that continued for the second day, rejected Rajya Sabha candidate Navneet Chaturvedi was handed over to the Ropar police by UT cops here on Wednesday evening.

He was arrested and taken to Ropar by a team led by SP GS Gosal and CIA in-charge Manphool Singh around 8.30 pm after having spent nearly two days in the Sector 3 police station as the “protectee of the Chandigarh Police”.

Chaturvedi, who had filed his nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha byelection, is accused of having forged signatures of 10 AAP legislators to project them as his proposers for the October 24 contest.

An FIR in this regard has been registered against him in Ropar on the complaint of AAP MLA Dinesh Chadha.

After both Chaturvedi and the state police moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court this morning and a notice was issued to all parties concerned for November 4, the Chandigarh Police did not hand over Chaturvedi to the Ropar police.

Since last evening, a huge posse of the Punjab Police cops had been stationed around the Sector 3 police station to ensure that Chaturvedi did not escape from there.

After the high court issued the notice, the Ropar police went back to the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate (CJM) Sukhwinder Singh, seeking directions for the Chandigarh Police to execute the arrest warrants issued against Chaturvedi on Tuesday.

The CJM not just directed the Chandigarh SSP to ensure the compliance of the arrest warrants but also asked Sector 3 police station SHO Narinder Patial to explain “under which provisions of law he kept the accused in his custody”.

It was directed that the explanation, countersigned by the SSP, be submitted within four days, failing which “suitable action will be recommended against him as per law”, reads the eight-page order.

Chaturvedi had filed two sets of nomination papers for the Rajya Sabha byelection. In the first set filed on October 6, he had named 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers. But these papers did not carry the signature of any MLA.

He submitted a second set of nomination papers on October 13, which carried names of 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers along with their signatures.

During the scrutiny of the nomination papers on Tuesday, Chaturvedi’s nomination was rejected on the ground that the signatures of all 10 MLAs were forged.

While seven MLAs personally appeared before Returning Officer Ram Lok to say that they had not signed his nomination papers, three MLAs sent their letters saying they had not signed as his proposers.

On Monday night, a majority of the MLAs had moved applications before the police in their respective districts, claiming their signatures were forged by Chaturvedi and demanding that FIRs be registered against him.

After an FIR was registered against him at the Ropar police station on Monday night, the Chandigarh Police claimed that Chaturvedi had sought police protection, which was provided to him.

He came to the Vidhan Sabha for the scrutiny of his papers under the protection of the Chandigarh Police and later when he was going back under the police protection, the Ropar police tried to intercept the UT police vehicle and nab Chaturvedi.

He was then taken away to the office of the Chandigarh SSP and later shifted to the Sector 3 police station.