Punjab Police on Wednesday evening arrested Navneet Chaturvedi after a nearly 28 hours of standoff. Navneet Chaturvedi has been accused of forging signatures of AAP MLAs on his Rajya Sabha nomination papers. It is reported that Chaturvedi forged signatures of 10 MLAs of Aam Aadmi Party.
The seriousness of the case can be understood by the fact that a confrontation between Punjab and Chandigarh Police over his custody created dramatic scenes near Sukhna Lake on Tuesday afternoon.
Now, the question arises who is Navneet Chaturvedi and what is the controversy all about? Below is Navneet Chaturvedi's Case Explained-
46-year-old Navneet Chaturvedi claims to be the President of the Janata Party (India) and hails from Jaipur in Rajasthan. He had filed two sets of nomination papers as an independent candidate for the October 24 Rajya Sabha election in Punjab.
In his first set of papers, filed on October 6, Navneet Chaturvedi named 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers without their signatures. Thereafter, he submitted a second set of papers on October 13, which carried the names of the 10 AAP MLAs as his proposers, along with their signatures. During scrutiny on Tuesday, his papers were rejected as the signatures of all 10 MLAs were allegedly found to be forged.
During the investigation, election officials rejected Chaturvedi's nomination papers after they verified that the signatures of all 10 MLAs were forged. The FIR, registered under sections 318 (4), 338, 336 (3), and 61 (2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), emphasizes that Chaturvedi's actions were a deliberate attempt to mislead the Election Commission and the public, which is a serious criminal offense.
As per reports, after filing his nomination with forged signatures, Navneet Chaturvedi had alleged that many AAP MLAs are in his contact and the party will back him in the Rajya Sabha.
The sparked a confusion in Aam Aadmi Party and when the matter reached the high command, the MLAs filed complaints with the Assembly Secretary and the DGP, demanding an investigation.
Over 200 Punjab Police personnel camped outside the Sector 3 police station in Chandigarh through the night, waiting to arrest Navneet as soon as he steps out.
To arrest Navneet, Punjab Police also knocked on the doors of the High Court.
As per Live Law, the Punjab Government had filed the plea seeking directions to the Chandigarh Police to allow them to execute the arrest warrants, alleging that the Chandigarh Police obstructed the arrest on October 14 and forcibly took custody of the accused to their Headquarters, thereby sheltering him while he was wanted in a serious offence of forgery of nomination papers of 10 MLAs.
On the other hand, Chaturvedi filed a plea alleging that the Punjab Police attempted to abduct him from a Chandigarh police station.
