Accustomed to being around controversy, Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga has again made it to the headlines after getting three states involved in his arrest.
On Friday, the Punjab Police arrested Bagga from his residence in Delhi's Janakpuri, but the city police here brought him back to the capital from Haryana, saying its Punjab counterpart did not inform it about the arrest.
The Delhi Police had on Friday registered a case of kidnapping based on a complaint by Bagga's father Pritpal Singh Bagga that "some people" came over to his house at around 8 am and took away his son.
Punjab Police said it arrested Bagga in connection with a case registered in Mohali on April 1 which referred to Bagga's remarks on March 30, when he was part of a BJP youth wing protest outside Kejriwal’s residence.
Punjab Police had booked Bagga on charges of making provocative statements, promoting enmity and criminal intimidation. The case was registered on a complaint of AAP leader from Mohali Sunny Ahluwalia.
Bagga had also come under AAP fire for his tweet against Kejriwal over the film ‘The Kashmir Files’.
But who is Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga?
Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, who is a Bhagat Singh follower, has been a member of RSS since he was a teenager. He started his political career with Bhagat Singh Kranti Sena (BSKS).
In 2017, Bagga became Delhi BJP spokesperson. He is also the national secretary of BJP’s youth wing – Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).
Bagga also runs an online store selling T-shirts and accessories called ‘T-Shirt Bhaiya’. The products on his store fetaure nationalist slogans and controversial incidents.
“I have always taken a stand for the country. I sat on hunger strike for eight days to seek justice for Nirbahaya and did another hunger strike demanding action against the culprits of the 1984 Sikh massacre,” Bagga has earlier said in his defence, as per The Indian Express report.
In 2015, Bagga’s BSKS launched an online portal called ‘NaMo Patrika’. It was dedicated to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He was also one of the BJP social media influencers who met PM Modi at his official residence that year.
Bagga has been using his Twitter handle with close to 1 million followers to attack Delhi CM and AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal recently. In the past he has also targeted celebrities and trolled them for being ‘anti-nationals’.
In 2011, he disrupted author Arundhati Roy’s book launch event in Delhi as he found it to be “anti-Army and pro-Kashmir azaadi”. Bagga is known for being a part of similar incidents in the past.
He is also known for putting up controversial posters like one where the poster called Rajiv Gandhi “the father of mob lynching.”
Before all this, BJP noticed Bagga’s ability to garner attention and create buzz during the 2014 Assembly election campaign of BJP. He was a part of the month-long campaign in Varanasi where he distributed T-shirts to tea sellers which read ‘Why can’t a tea seller be PM’.