Chandigarh, Apr 30 (PTI) Rajya Sabha MP Harbhajan Singh, who recently quit AAP and joined the BJP along with six other MPs, has moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking directions to the Punjab government to restore his security cover.
The Punjab Police withdrew the security cover of the former cricketer after he, along with six other members of the Upper House, defected to the BJP. Following the withdrawal of the Punjab police security, the Centre deputed the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) outside his residence in Jalandhar.
AAP workers held protests outside the houses of Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta and Ashok Mittal following their defection, writing “gaddar” (traitor) with spray paint on the boundary walls of their residences in Jalandhar and Ludhiana.
On April 24, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs — Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Sandeep Pathak, Harbhajan Singh, Rajendra Gupta, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal — quit and merged with the BJP, alleging that the party had strayed from its principles, values and core morals. Six of the seven MPs who quit AAP are from Punjab.
In his plea, Harbhajan submitted that his security cover was withdrawn in “a very arbitrary and vindictive manner” by the additional director general of police (security) without any fresh threat assessment and without issuing any notice or opportunity of hearing to him.
According to the plea, the petitioner sought direction to the official respondents to restore the security cover, pointing out that immediately after the withdrawal of his security cover by the Punjab Police, a violent mob attacked the residence of the petitioner on April 25 and 26 in the presence of local police which failed to take any action.
“Interestingly, in the morning of 25th April, all the police personnel deployed left the residence of the petitioner and the Jalandhar deputy commissioner gave permission to the party members of AAP to hold protest at the residence of the petitioner and around 2.30 pm, a mob reached the residence of the petitioner and painted the outer walls of the house by writing ‘gaddar’ (traitor) and started breaking the front gate of the house of the petitioner,” read the plea.
“The petitioner was in Mumbai for some personal event when he received a phone call from his brother-in-law regarding the mob attack at his residence.
The brother-in-law of the petitioner told him that they have already informed the local police and this entire mob attack is happening in the presence of the local Jalandhar ACP (East) and SHO, Sub Division No. 7, Jalandhar, and instead of taking any action against the mobsters, they are rather facilitating the attack on the house of the petitioner,” the plea said.
The petitioner further submitted that the ADGP, while issuing the withdrawal order of the security, gave a direction to the Jalandhar commissioner of police for making necessary security arrangements, “but no such arrangements were made, and instead of protecting, the local police remained as a mute spectator when the house of the petitioner was attacked by the mobsters”.
The impugned action in withdrawing the security cover of the petitioner without making any fresh threat assessment is “highly illegal, unjustified and totally arbitrary”, the plea said.
“This action of withdrawing the security, collectively seen with the events which have taken place, especially appears to be motivated by political vendetta, especially seen in the light of the present law and order situation in the state of Punjab,” according to the plea.
The security wing has not provided any justification for withdrawing the security, and if the security of the petitioner is required to be reduced, then it has to be done in a phased manner based on a proper threat assessment report, it said.
According to the plea, Harbhajan, being a sitting MP of the Rajya Sabha, is required to travel extensively within Punjab in discharge of his parliamentary and public duties, thereby continuously exposing himself and his family members to potential threats.
“The recent mob attack at the petitioner’s residence on April 25 itself is a testimony to the live and real threat faced by the petitioner,” it said.
The petitioner and his family members including his aged mother, wife, minor daughter aged 10 years, and minor son aged five years are living under constant fear and apprehension. Their normal day-to-day life has been severely disturbed, the plea further submitted.
In the plea, Harbhajan mentioned Raghav Chadha’s April 24 announcement of seven MPs quitting AAP.
According to the plea, Harbhajan was one of India’s finest off-spin bowlers, who took more than 700 international wickets and was also a key member of India’s victorious squads in the 2007 ICC T20 World Cup and the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup.
Harbhajan, who was elected as a Rajya Sabha member in 2022, was provided security cover after he started receiving certain threats.