Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator Raman Arora, who was arrested in a fresh corruption case on September 4, has approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court challenging the legality of his arrest.
Arora, representing Jalandhar Central, was initially arrested on May 23 by the state vigilance bureau (VB) after a month-long investigation. He, along with Jalandhar municipal corporation assistant town planner Sukhdev Vashisht, was accused of identifying residential and commercial projects, issuing violation notices, and then allegedly demanding bribes to “settle” the cases.
On September 3, the high court granted him bail in that case. However, before his release, the vigilance bureau rearrested him on September 4 in connection with a new corruption case registered on August 23 at Rama Mandi police station. The FIR alleged that Arora had extorted money from a Jalandhar-based parking lot contractor, Ramesh Kumar.
In his plea, Arora claimed that he was being “harassed and implicated in successive criminal cases” due to internal party differences and political pressure to force his resignation as MLA. He further alleged that no “grounds of arrest” were communicated to him either before or at the time of his arrest.
The petition also challenges the production warrants issued by a judicial magistrate on September 3, as well as subsequent orders permitting his arrest and police remand.
The matter came up before Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya, who has listed it for further hearing on September 16.
