Punjab Police arrest AAP MLA Yadav from Delhi office
PATIALA/SANGRUR: Trouble seems to be chasing the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), as a Punjab Police team arrested its Delhi legislator Naresh Yadav on Sunday evening over last month’s Quran sacrilege in Muslim-dominated Malerkotla.
Yadav was second party legislator to be arrested in the Capital on Sunday after Delhi Police caught Okhla MLA Amanatullah Khan for allegedly threatening a woman. The Punjab cops, who didn’t find Yadav home in the morning, got him at his Mehrauli office later amid an AAP protest.
“As Yadav didn’t cooperate with the investigation team twice, we produced evidence against him in a Malerkotla court to ask for his custodial interrogation. The 12-member squad had warrants to arrest him,” said Sangrur senior superintendent of police (SSP) Prithpal Singh Thind.
AAP sources say the MLA had reached office to turn himself in. “I have nothing to hide. Punjab Police framed me on the directions of deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal. I have full faith in judiciary,” Yadav said after his arrest. AAP has called its members to storm Makerkotla, where Yadav will be produced in a court on Monday.
The court issued arrest warrants after police filed a statement of main accused Vijay Kumar that Yadav was a conspirator in sacrilege.
Vijay had recorded this statement in a Sangrur district court under Section 164 of the CrPC, under which any judicial magistrate (regardless of the jurisdiction) can record a confession of the accused.
Vijay was formerly a Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh pracharak (promotion agent) and into biofertiliser business.
His two alleged partners in crime are linked to Hindu organisation Vishva Hindu Parishad. The trio was arrested on June 28, two days after sacrilege led to communal tension and arson in Malerkotla, in which a mob tried to burn down the house of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) legislator F Nissara Khatoon.
The SAD has accused the AAP is playing into the hands of radicals, while the Congress had also demanded Yadav’s arrest. Twice in the first week of July, Yadav appeared before the investigation team. He claimed to have answered all questions but police said he had ducked some.
AAP’s Punjab affairs in-charge Sanjay Singh said police wasted their time coming to Delhi to arrest Yadav. “They could have called him to Sangrur, he would have gone running. The AAP has nothing to hide but a lot to expose about the SAD and how it framed an AAP leader by using an RSS pracharak. We stand by Yadav.”
He said that the Akalis wanted to stop the AAP wave sweeping Punjab.