Punjab police invoke sedition in Ambedkar statue vandalism case

On Friday, police presented the accused in court and obtained a five-day remand, citing the need for further investigation. They have now added sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) to the FIR, including Section 152, which pertains to acts harming India’s sovereignty, unity, and integrity and is similar to sedition; Sections 61 and 62, related to criminal conspiracy; Section 2, concerning insults to national honour; and Section 4, dealing with damage to public property.

During his visit to the site, Chandrashekhar Azad criticised the administration, saying that had the police ensured the statue’s security earlier, the incident would not have occurred. Accusing the authorities of reacting only after the damage was done, he demanded special security arrangements for statues of prominent leaders and vowed to push for stricter action against the culprits in Parliament.

Meanwhile, BJP has hit back at AAP’s suggestion that it could be behind the vandalism. Punjab BJP SC Morcha vice president Paramjit Singh Kainth alleged that AAP had previously benefited politically from incidents of sacrilege and was now failing to govern effectively.

“AAP formed the government in Punjab after the Guru Granth Sahib sacrilege incidents. Now, law and order are collapsing under its rule. The police are more focused on providing security to AAP leaders than maintaining law and order,”Kainth said.

He further accused AAP of mismanaging Punjab, saying, “AAP has made the state highly unstable. They are not serious about governance; they just want to extract Punjab’s resources and use them for election campaigns in Delhi and elsewhere.”