Drugs case: Supreme Court to hear Punjab's plea against bail to Bikram Singh Majithia after 4 weeks

Majithia—brother of former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal—was booked on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force into a drug racket in the State

Bikram Singh Majithia. Tribune file

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, February 7

The Punjab Government’s appeal against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting bail to senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drug case will be taken up for hearing after four weeks, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday.

“It will be difficult to pass over the case today. We will rather list it for hearing after four weeks,” a Bench led by Justice Aniruddha Bose said after being requested for a pass over as senior counsel Shyam Divan, who was to represent the Punjab government, was busy in some other court.

Majithia—the brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal—was booked on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force (STF) into a drug racket in the State. The STF report was based on confessional statements given to the Enforcement Directorate by some accused, including Jagjit Singh Chahal, Jagdish Singh Bhola and Maninder Singh Aulakh.

The Punjab Government has challenged the August 10, 2022 order of the Punjab and Haryana High Court following which Majithia was released from the Patiala jail after spending more than five months in the Patiala jail in the drug case.

The High Court had said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe that he was not guilty even as it clarified that its observation was only for deciding the bail application and the trial court should proceed independently of the observations made by it. The High Court had said that Majithia shall travel abroad only with leave of this Court and shall not tamper with the prosecution evidence.

Earlier, the Supreme Court had directed the Punjab Police not to arrest Majithia till February 23, 2022 in the drugs case to enable him to take part in the election campaign. However, it had directed him to surrender before the trial court after that.

Earlier, Justice Surya Kant had on January 30 recused himself from hearing the Punjab Government’s appeal against the High Court order granting bail to Majithia. Following this, CJI DY Chandrachud reconstituted the Bench.

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