Won’t proceed with trial of Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira in 2015 drugs case: Punjab Government to Supreme Court

PTI

New Delhi, April 10

The Punjab Government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court it will not proceed with the trial of Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a 2015 drug haul case for the time being.

Senior advocate Siddharth Dave, appearing for the Punjab government, told a bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and Pankaj Mithal that he has instructions to inform the court that the state will not proceed with the trial against Khaira till the next date of hearing of his plea in the case.

The bench then listed the matter for hearing after four weeks.

The top court was hearing Khaira’s plea challenging the January 4 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court which termed his arrest in the 2015 drugs case in September last year as legal.

Dave sought time to reply to the Congress leader’s petition which was granted.

Senior advocate PS Patwalia and advocate Nikhil Jain, appearing for Khaira, opposed Dave’s prayer seeking time and urged the court that the proceedings before the trial court in the drugs case should be stayed till the next date of hearing.

Patwalia submitted that the state government was yet to file its response to Khaira’s plea despite issuance of notice.

He said the state police filed the chargesheet in the drugs haul case on January 20 and the proceedings before the trial court are going on.

The bench then told Dave that either the state government should make a statement that it will not proceed in the case for the time being or the HC shall order a stay on the proceedings before the trial court.

Dave, under instructions from the government, made the statement that the state will not proceed with the trial against Khaira till the next date of hearing in the apex court.

Khaira was on January 4 granted bail by the high court in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and the Arms Act case lodged in 2015 but was arrested in a fresh case related to alleged criminal intimidation.

The Congress leader had moved the high court challenging his arrest in the 2015 case, terming it as “political vendetta” unleashed upon him by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the state.

The bail granted to Khaira in the 2015 case was later challenged by the Punjab government before the top court which refused to cancel the relief.

The drugs case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka.

Nine people, including Gurdev Singh, allegedly a close aide of Khaira, were booked and convicted.

Police had seized two kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, a country-made pistol, a .315 bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them.

On January 15, a local court in Kapurthala district of Punjab granted bail to Khaira in the criminal intimidation case.

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