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Chandigarh, October 16 (IANS) A trial court in Punjab’s Ropar on Thursday sent Navneet Chaturvedi, the main accused in the Rajya Sabha by-election fraud case involving 10 Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs, to police custody till October 23.
A case of forgery, impersonation and criminal conspiracy was registered against Ropar MLA Dinesh Chadha for using fake signature and name in his nomination papers.
Chaturvedi was arrested from Sector 3 police station in Chandigarh on Wednesday evening, after an almost 28-hour standoff between Chandigarh Police and Punjab Police over custody.
Chaturvedi, who claims to be the president of the Janata Party (India) and hails from Jaipur, had filed two sets of nomination papers as an independent candidate for the October 24 Rajya Sabha by-election in Punjab.
In his first set of papers filed on October 6, he named 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers without their signatures. He submitted a second set of papers on October 13, bearing the names and signatures of 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers.
During scrutiny their papers were rejected as the signatures of all the 10 MLAs were allegedly found to be fake.
Meanwhile, Chaturvedi on Wednesday moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court seeking protection from arrest in the criminal case registered against him. Along with this, the state government also moved the High Court demanding an urgent hearing.
The high court, which had only sought responses from the parties concerned on their petitions, refused to pass orders in any case.
In the petition, Chaturvedi sought protection from arrest for 10 days and a direction to Punjab Police to present before the court the First Information Report (FIR) registered against him.
He also accused the Punjab Police on Tuesday of trying to kidnap him.
After the FIR was registered in Ropar, a team of Punjab Police went to Chandigarh to arrest him, but the Chandigarh Police took him into its custody.
Earlier this week, Punjab Police registered multiple FIRs after several Aam Aadmi Party MLAs alleged that their signatures on the nomination papers submitted by Chaturvedi were forged.
Arguing in the High Court, Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi and Additional Advocate General Chanchal Singla have sought handing over the custody of the accused to Punjab Police and initiation of contempt and departmental action against the officers responsible for disobeying the court orders.
Punjab Police has initiated legal action after receiving complaints from sitting members of the assembly (MLAs) regarding alleged forgery of signatures on the nomination papers submitted by Chaturvedi.
–IANS
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