Supreme Court orders Bikram Singh Majithia to appear before SIT in drugs case probe

The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia to appear before the special investigation team (SIT), probing a drugs case against him.

A bench led by Justices JK Maheshwari ordered Majithia to appear at the SIT headquarters in Patiala around 11 am on March 17.

The order came after the Punjab Government said Majithia was refusing to cooperate in the probe.

"The authorities may interrogate him and complete the investigation,” the bench said, adding that he will appear on March 18 as well at the same time, if needed.

The bench posted the matter for further hearing on March 24

Majithia — 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) looking into a drug racket in the state.

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 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.

Punjab Advocate General Gurminder Singh sought cancellation of Majithia’s bail on grounds that he was not cooperating with the investigation. Singh submitted that certain queries were put to him by way of a written questionnaire, which he refused to reply to.

Majithia's counsel replied that he is being harassed for political reasons and asked the court to fix dates for interrogation.

However, Majitha's counsel submitted that the court should specify that his client was ready to appear before the probe agency for two days.

The top court had on January 31, 2022 granted protection to Majithia from arrest till February 2023, because of the February 20 Assembly election to contest as SAD candidate from the Amritsar East constituency.

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.