Arrest of Akali leader's daughter: Tarn Taran court hears arguments past midnight

Chandigarh: A court in Punjab's Tarn Taran district heard arguments in the matter pertaining to the arrest of Kanchanpreet Kaur, the daughter of a Shiromani Akali Dal leader.

Kanchanpreet was produced before the court on Saturday night, with the hearing beginning at 10 pm and lasting till around 1 am.

She is the daughter of SAD leader Sukhwinder Kaur Randhawa who recently lost the Tarn Taran bypoll to the AAP candidate.

Police on Friday arrested Kanchanpreet after she was named in a Tarn Taran case linked to alleged intimidation during the bypoll. The case was registered at Chabhal police station in Tarn Taran on November 11.

Speaking to media after hearing in Tarn Taran, Kanchanpreet's counsel Damanbir Singh Sobti said arguments from both sides have concluded, adding that they submitted that the arrest of Kanchanpreet was illegal. "We are waiting for an order," he said.

During the hearing, police sought a 10-day police remand of Kanchanpreet.

The Shiromani Akali Dal leadership has called the case as "political vendetta" by the AAP government.

The case was initially registered against Amritpal Singh Bath for allegedly threatening complainant Gurpreet Kaur of Padhri Kalan to influence her vote.

However, Kanchanpreet was named in the FIR on November 27. She was charged under sections 174 (non-attendance in obedience to an order from public servant), 351(2) (criminal intimidation), 351(3) (criminal intimidation by anonymous communication), and 111 (organised crime) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS).

Kanchanpreet was already facing four poll-related cases in which she has already got anticipatory bail.

However, earlier on Saturday, Akali Dal legal cell head Arshdeep Singh Kler, the petitioner in the case, moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court against Kanchanpreet's arrest by filing a habeas corpus plea and called her arrest illegal and unlawful.

State counsel Chanchal K Singla, however, opposed the submissions made by the petitioner's counsel, submitting that the FIR has already been registered.

He further submitted that complicity of the alleged detenue (Kanchanpreet) surfaced as her husband, Amritpal Singh Bath was involved in 23 FIRs. It was also subitted that the alleged detenue, being his wife, was involved and thus, offence under Section 111 has been added.

He added that the investigating agency is duty bound to produce the alleged detenue within the statutory limit of 24 hours before the magistrate concerned.

The HC in its order stated that the magistrate is directed to take into consideration the contention raised by petitioner's counsel before taking any decision on the remand of the alleged detenue sought by the state.

Following the request by the petitioner's counsel that he would himself personally appear before the court in Tarn Taran to argue the case and would reach there by 8 pm, the bench of justice Rajesh Bhardwaj directed the magistrate to keep Kanchanpreet in court custody and allow her counsel to make his submissions.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab general secretary Baltej Pannu alleged that Kanchanpreet's husband Amritpal Singh Bath was a gangster and Akali Dal was deliberately hiding this part.

In a statement, he asked why the SAD leadership was describing it as arrest of an Akali leader's daughter, but "hiding the fact" that she is also the wife of a gangster.

He asked why the Akali Dal was concealing that Kanchanpreet's husband intimidated voters during the by-election.

Pannu claimed that while Kanchanpreet publicly declares from the stage that she is Amritpal Bath's wife and that they have a son, she leaves the "marital status" column blank when submitting her election affidavit, so "the truth" does not reach the people.