Chandigarh, May 1 -- The Punjab and Haryana high court has directed the Punjab government to ensure safety of Rajya Sabha member and former cricketer Harbhajan Singh and his family members residing in Jalandhar. Harbhajan left the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) along with Raghav Chadha and five other party MPs and joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in New Delhi on April 24. The switch led to AAP workers staging protests at the residences of three of defector MPs from Punjab. The directions were passed on a petition filed by the 45-year-old Harbhajan, who had alleged that on April 25, his security cover was withdrawn in Delhi and Punjab by the state government in "a very arbitrary and vindictive manner" without any fresh threat assessment and issuing any notice or opportunity of hearing to him. The plea said he was given the security cover in May 2022 following a threat perception review by state intelligence and security agencies. "The security cover was abruptly withdrawn within hours of the petitioner's announcement of leaving the AAP, in what is a clear act of political vendetta by the AAP government," he said. According to the plea, Harbhajan's mother, Avtar Kaur, 80, wife Geeta Basra, daughter Hinaya Heer Plaha, 10, son Jovan Veer Plaha, 5, and his sister Bakshish Kaur's family reside in Jalandhar. A day after he left AAP, all police personnel deployed left his residence and the Jalandhar deputy commissioner gave permission to AAP workers to hold protest at the residence, the plea claimed, adding that at 2.30pm, a mob came and painted the outer walls of the house by writing "traitor" and tried to break the front gate, alleges the plea. The former ace spinner said that at the time of incident, he was in Mumbai and got a call from his brother-in-law regarding the attack. The RS member's brother-in-law told him that the attack took place in front of senior police officers, the plea said, adding that the ministry of home affairs stepped in on April 26 and deployed four CRPF personnel. However, the security cover has not been restored, the former cricketer alleged seeking quashing of the April 25 decision of the Punjab Police and further directions to restore the security cover. The high court bench of justice Jagmohan Bansal has sought response from the government by May 12, directing that "in the meantime, the respondent shall ensure that no physical injury is caused to the petitioner or his family members while they are in the Punjab"....