03NEW DELHI, May 2: The Punjab Police has booked Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak, who recently quit the AAP to join the BJP with six of his colleagues, sources said on Saturday.
Two FIRs have been lodged against Pathak under non-bailable sections, they said.
No further details about the FIRs have been disclosed yet.
Pathak was among the seven Rajya Sabha MPs who quit the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) recently.
A Punjab police team went to Delhi but Pathak had already left his residence in a sports utility vehicle (SUV) before its arrival. In a video, Pathak was seen leaving his residence when some journalists approached him for his reaction to the development.
Pathak, a former professor at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Delhi, was credited with drafting the AAP’s election and campaign strategy and building the party organisation. Once considered close to AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal, Pathak played a significant role in the party’s triumph in the 2022 Punjab Assembly polls.
The development comes close on the heels of a raid conducted by the Punjab Pollution Control Board at the premises of Trident Limited on April 30. Rajya Sabha MP Rajinder Gupta is the chairman emeritus of the company. Gupta was also one of the seven MPs who quit the AAP and joined the BJP last month.
Earlier, the Punjab Police had withdrawn the security cover of MP and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh.
On April 24, the AAP suffered a jolt when seven of its 10 Rajya Sabha MPs quit the party, alleging that the Kejriwal-led outfit has strayed from its principles, values and core morals.
Besides Pathak, Gupta and Singh, the others who quit the party were Raghav Chadha, Ashok Mittal, Vikramjit Sahney and Swati Maliwal. Six of them were from Punjab.
Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan later officially accepted their merger with the BJP, reducing the AAP’s strength in the Upper House of Parliament to three.
Meanwhile, Punjab BJP leaders accused the AAP government in Punjab of indulging in “political vendetta”.
In a post on X, Punjab BJP president Sunil Jakhar accused the AAP of double standards and said, “Those whom your leader was calling the apple of his eye just a few days ago, today, as soon as they switch parties, flaws start appearing in them. Isn’t this proof of Aam Aadmi Party’s double standards?”
Talking to reporters, Jakhar said the BJP is not intimidated by the FIRs filed by the Punjab Police, claiming that these actions are meant to divert attention from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s alleged conduct of arriving in the Assembly in an inebriated state on Friday, a charge vehemently denied by the ruling party.
Reiterating that the BJP stands firmly by its leaders, Jakhar said the party will oppose any form of “political vendetta”. He also cautioned officials against overstepping legal boundaries while carrying out such actions.
Asked about the FIRs, Jakhar said he does not have complete details. “I have learnt that one is regarding giving a threat to someone and another is about corruption charges,” he said.
Punjab BJP’s working president Ashwani Sharma also called the FIRs against Pathak “political vendetta”.
“The registration of a non-bailable FIR against Rajya Sabha MP Sandeep Pathak in Punjab after he left the AAP and joined the BJP clearly shows that police are being used as a political weapon by Kejriwal and Mann,” Sharma alleged in a post in Punjabi on X.
“This is not just a case: This is the politics of fear, panic and revenge,” he added.
Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia slammed the AAP for “selectively targeting” those who fell out with it.
“Sandeep Pathak was once a trusted aide of @BhagwantMann and @ArvindKejriwal, a key power centre. If he was wrong then, he was following his bosses Arvind Kejriwal and Bhagwant Mann. Then who was in collusion with him, and why are they not being booked now?” asked Majithia.
The BJP also alleged that the law-and-order scenario in Punjab has deteriorated.
The saffron party’s national spokesperson, Sudhanshu Trivedi, claimed that the police action reflects misplaced priorities.
“The Punjab Police went to Pathak’s residence and attempted to carry out a raid. We want to ask whether the law-and-order situation has become so weak that police are unable to act against drug traffickers, but are being used in this manner?” he asked while talking to reporters.
Targeting Kejriwal and Mann, he said, “Those who claim to represent a new kind of politics should explain how law and order has completely collapsed in their state.”
Referring to the opposition’s allegation that Mann was under the influence of alcohol in the Punjab Assembly on Friday, Trivedi said the AAP government has failed to maintain governance.
“I want to clearly tell the AAP, the Punjab government and especially, Kejriwal, that this is a fragile facade,” Trivedi said. (PTI)
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