Punjab, Chandigarh police clash over custody of man booked for 'forging' RS bypolls nomination paper

Chandigarh, Oct 14 (PTI) Punjab Police and Chandigarh Police got into a minor scuffle on Tuesday over the custody of a Rajasthan native who is accused of filing his Rajya Sabha polls nomination with forged signatures.

Navneet Chaturvedi, a resident of Jaipur, who claims to be the national president of the Janata Party, was booked on Monday after AAP MLAs alleged that their signatures were forged on nomination papers submitted by him.

On Tuesday, after Chaturvedi came out of the Punjab Vidhan Sabha following the rejection of his nomination papers, a team of Rupnagar police followed the Chandigarh Police vehicle in which he was being taken.

The Rupnagar police team intercepted the vehicle near Sukhna Lake to arrest Chaturvedi, but faced resistance from the Chandigarh Police.

An argument broke out between the two forces, which had a physical skirmish as well, before Chaturvedi was taken to Sector 3 Police Station.

Later, Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police Kanwardeep Kaur reached the spot and shepherded his team to the police headquarters.

A video of the incident was circulated widely on social media.

In the wake of the incident, Rupnagar Senior Superintendent of Police Gulneet Singh Khurana met the director general of police of the Union Territory, said sources.

A senior Punjab Police officer said they are exploring legal options to get custody of the accused.

Chaturvedi filed two nominations for the Rajya Sabha, one on October 6 and another on October 13, both allegedly with forged signatures of proposers.

Meanwhile, Punjab minister Aman Arora accused the BJP-led central government of destroying democracy.

Arora repeated the allegations levelled against Chaturvedi.

He said that when the forgery came to light, AAP MLA from Rupnagar, Dinesh Kumar Chadha, whose signature had also been forged, filed a complaint with the local police, and late Monday night, an FIR was registered against Chaturvedi.

"Today, the Rupnagar court issued an arrest warrant against Chaturvedi. However, when the Rupnagar police came to Chandigarh with the arrest warrants to apprehend the accused, the Chandigarh Police clashed with them and took the accused away in a government vehicle," Arora said.

The Punjab Aam Aadmi Party president also accused the Chandigarh Police of giving Chaturvedi "VIP treatment" instead of cooperating with their Punjab counterpart.

The politician demanded an immediate handover of custody of Chaturvedi to the Rupnagar Police Station. so that the law can take its course of action.

The Rajya Sabha bypoll will be held on October 24.

The bypoll is being held to fill the vacancy created by the resignation of AAP's Sanjeev Arora, who stepped down from the Upper House following his election to the state assembly.

Sanjeev Arora, whose term was to end on April 9, 2028, is presently serving as a minister in the Punjab Cabinet led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

The AAP has fielded industrialist Rajinder Gupta for the bypoll. AAP enjoys an overwhelming majority with 93 members in the 117-member state Assembly. PTI CHS VN VN