BJP leader Bittu alleges vendetta after police action against his three aides
A day after arresting bizman, cops booked Bant Singh Doburji for ‘fraud’ in Ludhiana, while Rajesh Attri was held under SC/ST Act in Patiala
The Punjab police on Monday booked Bant Singh Doburji, former president of Municipal Council, Doraha, in Ludhiana, while arresting another aide, Rajesh Attri, for allegedly making casteist remarks over a ‘mistaken’ WhatsApp call in Patiala, both close aides of minister of state for railways Ravneet Bittu.
This comes a day after Bittu’s another close associate, former district youth congress president and businessman Rajiv Raja, was arrested on extortion charges.
Doburji was booked late Sunday evening in a 10-month-old case of cheating and fraud in which his son Daljit Singh Jhajja is among the 14 accused who are already facing trial.
An FIR was lodged against Jhajja and 13 others under sections 420, 465, 467, 468, 471 and 120B of IPC on April 13, 2024, following the complaint of Kuldeep Kumar and other residents of New Mandeep Colony.
The complainant told police that the accused had developed a colony on 16-acre land in 2019 and At least 200 people had bought the land and constructed houses. Later, they found that the land belonged to Loh Langar (land kept aside for community purposes), and could not be sold.
Doburji is still in the Congress party and is said to be a close confidant of Bittu.
In Patiala, police arrested Rajesh Attri allegedly for making casteist remarks over a ‘mistaken’ WhatsApp call. Patiala Police lodged an FIR under section 3 (2) of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989.
As per the complainant, Ishu, who is a resident of the Lahori gate area in Patiala city, he accidentally called Attri on his WhatsApp number on Sunday evening. The complainant alleged that Attri started abusing him and passed casteist remarks during the call. The complainant filed a police complaint at Lahori Gate police station in Patiala and Attri was arrested on Monday morning. He was produced in the local court and sent to a two-day police remand.
The Ludhiana court remanded Raja to two-day police custody on Monday. Raja was among four accused arrested by Division Number 8 police on Sunday. The other arrested accused include Jagjeet Singh, Rohan Singh and Raharas Singh.
Ramandeep Singh Bhullar, additional deputy commissioner of police (ADCP, Operations), said that the police have adequate evidence against Raja. He added that Ravish Gupta, 37, a resident of Mall Enclave, had filed a complaint stating that he had been receiving continuous calls and messages on WhatsApp from an international number over the past few days. The unknown caller demanded ₹30 lakh in ransom.
Acting on Gupta’s complaint, the Division Number 8 police registered an FIR under Sections 308(4) (extortion) and 351(2) (criminal intimidation) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the unidentified accused.
Reacting to police action, Bittu alleged that the ruling AAP in Punjab was indulging in “vendetta and revenge politics” following the BJP’s decisive victory against AAP in the Delhi assembly elections.
“This is an act of retaliation for the AAP’s defeat in New Delhi. If Mann has the courage, he should arrest me instead of harassing small workers,” the BJP leader said.
Bittu alleged that the Punjab Police was f being used as a tool to harass his supporters and family members.
“Stop taking revenge on my associates’ families. I come from a family of martyrs, and I don’t fear any police cases or arrests. I fight my battles directly and without resorting to force on innocent children or families,” Bittu said.
Meanwhile, BJP Punjab mahila morcha president Jai Inder Kaur also condemned the flimsy and politically motivated arrest of Attri. “This is a clear breakdown of law and order, where instead of tackling serious security threats, the government is misusing police forces for its vendetta politics,” she added.