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were passed on a petition filed by the 45-year-old Harbhajan, who had alleged that on April 25, his security cover was withdrawn in Delhi and Punjab by the state government in "a very arbitrary and vindictive manner" without any fresh threat assessment an...