Punjab Police book Vishwas, Lamba for remarks on Kejriwal
RUPNAGAR: Punjab Police have registered a case against former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leaders Kumar Vishwas and Alka Lamba on charges of promoting enmity by allegedly making false statements against party’s national convener Arvind Kejriwal, accusing him of supporting separatists, in the run-up to the February 20 assembly elections, police said on Wednesday.
Though the case against Vishwas was registered on the complaint of an AAP worker at Rupnagar’s Sadar police station on April 12, the matter came to light on Wednesday when a Punjab Police team reached his Ghaziabad house to summon him to join investigation within 48 hours. The complainant said that when he was campaigning in a village along with AAP supporters, some masked men stopped them and called them Khalistani. “The FIR has been registered on the basis of a complaint that Kumar Vishwas made wrong statements in his interviews for promoting enmity in society,” said Rupnagar superintendent of police (SP) (detective) Harbir Singh Atwal, who is heading the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to probe the case.
“It has been alleged that AAP workers faced violence during the elections due to the wrong statements of Vishwas.”
The poet-turned-politician had triggered a controversy when he accused Delhi chief minister Kejriwal of wanting “to become the prime minister of independent Khalistan” on February 16.
Vishwas criticised Kejriwal and Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann in a tweet and warned Mann against “the person sitting in Delhi (Kejriwal)”, saying he will “betray you and Punjab”.
Former AAP MLA Lamba, who is now with the Congress, has also been booked along with Vishwas, the SP said, adding that a police team had been sent to serve a notice to her to join investigation.
As Lamba was not available, the police pasted the notice on door of her house. She is a co-accused in the FIR.
Lamba on Twitter said police officials threatened her of “consequences” if she failed to appear before the SIT. Calling herself a “Gandhian soldier of Congress”, Lamba said if she was not afraid of “big Sanghis” then “small sanghis” cannot scare her. Former Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said the state police were acting like a puppet of Kejriwal.
An AAP leader on condition of anonymity said the chief minister’s office was monitoring every development in the case.