Ex-AAP leader Kumar Vishwas booked for remarks against Arvind Kejriwal; Punjab Police reaches Congress' Alka Lamba's residence

Former Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Kumar Vishwas has been booked by the Punjab Police in Rupnagar town for promoting enmity by allegedly make false statements against AAP national convener and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s Khalistan links in the run-up to the February 20 assembly elections.

Vishwas has been booked under Section 125 of the Representation of People Act besides Sections 153, 153-A, 505, 502, 116, 143, 147, 323 and 341 of the Indian Penal Code.

Though the case 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 the Ghaziabad house of Vishwas 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.

A team of police reached Kumar's residence this morning to serve notice asking him to join the investigation. Meanwhile, opposition parties have attacked the Punjab government, accusing it of misusing the police for political vendetta.

Meanwhile, former AAP leader Alka Lamba also claimed that a team of Punjab Police came to her house.

"The Punjab police arrived at my doorstep early morning. I am cautioning Bhagwant Mann, who I admitted into the party myself, that the person sitting in Delhi who you are letting play with the power given by the people of Punjab, will betray both you and Punjab one day. The country should remember my warning," the former AAP leader said on Twitter along with some pictures of cops at his residence.

While Lamba also tweeted in Hindi, "Police has reached at my residence".

BJP Punjab General secretary Subhash Sharma accused Arvind Kejriwal of using the Punjab police to settle personal scores. "The police landing first at Tajinder Bagga's residence and now Kumar Vishwas shows that Bhagwant Mann has fully surrendered in front of Arvind Kejriwal," he said in a Tweet.

For the unversed, Vishwas had triggered a controversy when he accused Kejriwal of wanting “to become the prime minister of independent Khalistan”. Kejriwal and the AAP remained under attack from both the Congress and the BJP over the issue and some AAP workers were also roughed up during the election campaign. The Centre went on to provide Y category security cover to Vishwas.

Notably, earlier this month, Punjab Police booked two Delhi BJP leaders Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and Naveen Kumar Jindal. Bagga was booked as he had been attacking Kejriwal over his remarks on the movie The Kashmir Files, while Jindal was booked for sharing a doctored video clip of Kejriwal on April 6.