HC grants Bikram Majithia 3 weeks to amend plea

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court today granted three weeks to former cabinet minister Bikram Singh Majithia to amend his petition.The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader had initially filed a petition against his “illegal arrest and subsequent remand”.Remanded to judicial custody till July 19, Majithia is currently lodged in the Nabha jail. As the matter came up for resumed hearing, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya fixed the matter for further proceedings on July 29. Majithia – among other things – had challenged the remand orders after terming these illegal. He submitted in his petition that the case was a result of “political witch-hunting and vendetta initiated by the present political dispensation with the sole object of maligning and harassing him as he has been a vocal critic and political opponent”.The petition was filed through Sartej Singh Narula, Damanbir Singh Sobti and Arshdeep Singh Cheema days after the Vigilance Bureau (VB) registered the FIR under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Majithia had submitted that the FIR dated June 25 at the VB police station in Mohali was “patently illegal” and his arrest the same day from his residence was carried out in “gross violation of the settled legal procedures”.