Relief for Sukhpal Khaira; Supreme Court refuses to cancel bail granted to Congress MLA by Punjab and Haryana High Court in drugs case

Satya Prakesh

New Delhi, January 18

The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to cancel the bail granted to Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a 2015 drugs case.

A Bench led by Justice Bela M Trivedi dismissed the Punjab government’s special leave petition challenging the January 4 order of the high court granting bail to Khaira.

The Punjab Government had moved the Supreme Court challenging the High Court’s order granting bail to Khaira in the case registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

The bench told senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for the Punjab government, that though the allegations are serious against Khaira but in the facts and circumstances of the case, it would not interfere with the high court order.

Khaira, MLA from Bholath assembly constituency, was granted bail by the high court but was arrested in a fresh one related to criminal intimidation.

He was arrested in September in connection with the 2015 case, triggering accusations of political vendetta against the state’s ruling AAP from the Congress.

He had been seeking bail after his alleged role in a Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case surfaced during probe by a special investigation team.

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 in connection with the case and later convicted.

The 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.