Court extends Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira’s police remand by two days

PTI

Fazilka, October 12

A court here on Thursday extended Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s police remand by two days in a 2015 drugs case.

The Bholath MLA was produced in the Jalalabad court after his two-day remand ended on Thursday.

Khaira was arrested on September 28 from his Chandigarh residence and sent to two-day remand.

Though the police had asked for further remand, the court refused to grant it and sent him to a 14-day judicial custody on September 30.

Leader of Opposition in Punjab Assembly Partap Singh Bajwa claimed he was not allowed to meet Khaira when he was produced in the court.

“It is a public premises, it is the district court. How can you stop anyone? I hold a constitutional post, I am the leader of the opposition. How can you stop,” asked Bajwa, slamming police personnel for stopping him.

Khaira was arrested on the basis of an investigation conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) led by Deputy Inspector General Swapan Sharma in the drugs case.

The case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Nine people, including Khaira’s close aide Gurdev Singh, were booked in the case and later convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

Police had recovered 2 kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, a country-made pistol, a .315-bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them.

Khaira’s name cropped up later during the police probe.

However, in 2017, the Supreme Court stayed the trial court proceedings against Khaira, who was summoned as an additional accused in the matter. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 on the charge of money laundering linked to the 2015 drugs case. He was granted bail in 2022.

In February this year, the apex court quashed the summoning order against Khaira in the drugs case.

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