Hours after bail in drugs case, Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira held on coercion charge

Tribune News Service

Deepkamal Kaur

Kapurthala, January 4

On the day when Congress leader Sukhpal Khaira got bail in a 2015 drugs case, he was booked and arrested in a fresh case lodged against him at the Subhanpur police station here this morning.

Fresh FIr lodged against Bholath MLA

• The fresh FIR was lodged following an application moved by Ranjit Kaur, wife of Kashmir Singh of Dogranwala village in Kapurthala, seeking an FIR against Khaira for threatening her to force her husband into withdrawing his statement in the 2015 drugs case
• She said her husband Kashmir Singh had deposed against Khaira at the Jalalabad (Sadar) police station. Two persons had threatened to eliminate her and her family if her husband did not withdraw the statement in the case, she alleged

An FIR (No. 3) was lodged against the Bholath MLA and two other unidentified persons at 3 am under Sections 195-A (threatening a person to give false evidence) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the IPC. The offence under Section 195-A is non-bailable.

Khaira, lodged in the Nabha jail since October last, was brought to a Kapurthala court on production warrants in connection with the new case this evening. Even as the Kapurthala police sought his seven-day remand, JMIC Supreet Kaur allowed only one-day police custody.

The fresh FIR was lodged following an application moved by Ranjit Kaur, wife of Kashmir Singh of Dogranwala village in Kapurthala under Section 154(3) of the CrPC on December 18, seeking an FIR against Khaira for threatening her to force her husband into withdrawing his statement in the drugs case. She said her husband Kashmir Singh had deposed against Khaira at the Jalalabad (Sadar) police station.

She has written in her complaint that on October 15 evening, two persons (their faces covered) come to her place and threatened to eliminate her and her family if her husband did not withdraw the statement. She said she also received a threat call from an unknown person on October 22.

She said she lodged police complaints on October 16 and 22, but no FIR was registered. She said she then moved an application in the court of Illaqa Magistrate Kapurthala. “The court of Supreet Kaur, JMIC, Kapurthala, on November 6 disposed of the application with directions to the SHO to do the needful,” she said.

Sukhpal Khaira’s lawyer son Mehtab Khaira has termed the lodging of a new case against his father as a “clear malafide intention to keep him behind bars for a longer period”. Congress leaders, including Pradesh Congress Committee chief Amarinder Singh Raja Warring, have termed it a “proof that the AAP government was indulging in vendetta politics”. He wrote on social media platform ‘X’ that the FIR has been registered just to harass him further.

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