Mohali Police on Thursday arrested Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Parambans Singh Bunty Romana into custody in Chandigarh on Thursday following a controversial tweet and subsequently registered a case against him. Romana had allegedly posted a video that purportedly showed Punjabi singer Kanwar Grewal singing a song containing slurs against the Chief Ministers of Punjab and Delhi.
Kanwar Grewal, the singer in question, had denied singing any such song, asserting that the videos were manipulated from one of his stage performances.
Bunty Romana, former president of the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) is facing charges under sections 468 (forgery for the purpose of cheating), 469 (forgery to harm reputation), and 500 (punishment for defamation) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), along with 43(i) (damage to computer system without permission of the owner) and 66 of the (computer-related offences) IT Act. These charges have been filed at the Mataur police station. Following Romana’s arrest, the SAD leader described it as a political vendetta. Senior SAD leaders, including party president Sukhbir Singh Badal and Dr Daljeet Singh Cheema, were seen arriving for a meeting with the Mohali senior superintendent of police, Sandeep Garg, to discuss the situation. The SAD president was accompanied by party leader Prem Singh Chandumajra. Other party workers also reached Mohali SSP’s office to protest Romana’s arrest.
The FIR has been registered on the complaint of Inspector Sandeep Singh, in-charge of cybercrime, Mohali. The complainant police officer submitted that while he was doing a search of social media sites on Wednesday night on his laptop, he came to know that Romana had posted the video on Wednesday on his account on the microblogging platform X (formerly Twitter) with the description, “Kanwar Grewal’s advice and warning to Bhagwant Mann at a concert.”
