Chandigarh, Oct 15: A high-voltage confrontation broke out between the Chandigarh Police and the Ropar Police on Tuesday morning after the latter accused their counterparts of obstructing the arrest of Navneet Chaturvedi, a Rajasthan resident accused of forging signatures of AAP MLAs on his Rajya Sabha nomination papers.
Chaturvedi, a Jaipur-based businessman, was booked on Monday after several AAP legislators alleged that their signatures had been forged on his nomination papers submitted for the Rajya Sabha bypoll from Punjab.
According to Ropar Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Gulneet Khurana, a team from her district police had “rounded up” Chaturvedi near Sukhna Lake in Chandigarh when officers from the Union Territory Police intervened. “Our teams were pushed away and prevented from making the arrest despite us informing them about the active warrant,” Khurana said.
She added that she later met the Chandigarh SSP and briefed her about the FIR lodged on the complaint of Ropar MLA Dinesh Chadha. “Our teams remain in Chandigarh and are exploring legal options to take custody of the accused,” Khurana noted.
Chandigarh Police officials, however, said that Chaturvedi was under their official protection at the time. “He had sought security, citing fears of abduction. Our personnel were escorting him when the Punjab Police team arrived,” a UT police official said.
Sources said that the Chandigarh Police, which had been providing security cover to Chaturvedi, quickly moved him from Sukhna Lake to the UT Police Headquarters in Sector 9 before the Ropar Police could execute the arrest. The Punjab team followed them to the headquarters, where SSP Khurana met the UT DGP to press for action against the accused.
Chaturvedi was accompanied by Sector 3 SHO Narinder Patial at the time of the incident. A brief scuffle reportedly occurred between the two police teams before the Chandigarh control room was alerted. Senior officers, including SSP Kanwardeep Kaur, then reached the spot and escorted Chaturvedi and the UT team to the headquarters.
The case against Chaturvedi stems from an FIR alleging the forgery of AAP MLAs’ signatures on a handwritten list of proposers attached to his nomination papers. The list, which surfaced online, was later disowned by several MLAs who claimed their names and signatures had been faked.
Officials said Chaturvedi had submitted two separate nominations for the Rajya Sabha seat, both allegedly carrying forged proposers’ signatures. Election officials subsequently rejected both sets of papers on grounds of forgery.
