Chandigarh, May 28 -- The Punjab government told the high court that the decision to withdraw security cover of Rajya Sabha member and former cricketer, Harbhajan Singh, was taken based on the March 3 review meeting and not on April 25, a day after he joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

It denied allegations of political vindictiveness levelled by the former cricketer, stating that the same are "unfounded and baseless."

Seven MPs, constituting two-thirds of the AAP's total strength of 10 in the Upper House, switched to the BJP on April 24. They include Raghav Chadha, Sandeep Pathak, Ashok Kumar Mittal, Harbhajan Singh, Rajinder Gupta, Vikramjit Singh Sahney (all from Punjab), and Swati Maliwal (Delhi).

The next day, the former cri...