Punjab Police arrests Rajasthan man booked for forging RS bypoll nomination after court steps in

Chandigarh, Oct 15 (PTI) A Rajasthan man accused of filing his Rajya Sabha polls nomination with forged signatures was arrested by Punjab Police on Wednesday, after a court pulled up the Chandigarh Police for "hindering" his arrest and directed it to cooperate following a dramatic face-off between the two forces over his custody.

Navneet Chaturvedi was booked for allegedly forging the signatures of 10 AAP MLAs for a Rajya Sabha bypoll nomination. He had been provided protection by the Chandigarh police after he had filed an application expressing fear of abduction.

Punjab Police and Chandigarh Police personnel had on Tuesday entered into heated arguments and engaged in a minor scuffle too after the former was allegedly prevented from taking Chaturvedi into custody.

Addressing the media here, Punjab state counsel Ferry Sofat said their police moved the court in Rupnagar after Chandigarh Police did not cooperate in executing an arrest warrant issued against Chaturvedi on Tuesday.

"It was the duty of the Chandigarh police to assist the Rupnagar police in executing the arrest warrant, but they did not comply with it," said Sofat.

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.

He had filed two nominations for the Rajya Sabha, one on October 6 and another on October 13, both allegedly with forged signatures of proposers. His nomination papers have already been rejected.

On Rupnagar police's plea, a Chief Judicial Magistrate court on Wednesday issued directions to the Chandigarh Police to assist in executing the arrest warrant against Chaturvedi.

The court also directed SHO Narinder Patiyal to furnish an explanation that under which provision of law he "kept the accused in his custody since Tuesday evening" and did not allow the Rupnagar police to execute the warrant of arrest.

He was further directed to submit his explanation duly countersigned by the Chandigarh senior superintendent of police within four days from the date of this order, failing which suitable action would be recommended against him as per law.

The order said that it appears to the court that the SHO (Patiyal) failed to perform his duties and instead of cooperating with the Rupnagar police, he created hindrance in the execution of warrant of arrest of the accused.

The court also said that the Chandigarh police was obligated to assist Rupnagar Police officers carrying an arrest warrant.

Punjab minister Aman Arora had on Tuesday 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.

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 by-election. AAP enjoys an overwhelming majority with 93 members in the 117-member state Assembly. PTI CHS RT RT