The Punjab and Haryana High Court has granted a three-day protection from arrest to SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia for approaching the Supreme Court to challenge its order in which the anticipatory bail plea of the former minister had been dismissed.
The court of Justice Lisa Gill on Monday had dismissed the anticipatory bail plea of Majithia, who had been booked in a drug case earlier. “….petitioner is afforded three days to enable him to approach the Hon’ble Supreme Court for challenging this order. Till then, petitioner be not arrested,” according to the order which came out on Tuesday.Majithia’s counsel had prayed for protection for seven days from the court.
The dismissal of the anticipatory bail plea has come as a setback to Majithia, who is the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) candidate from the Majitha Assembly constituency in Amritsar district. The process for filling of nomination papers for the February 20 Punjab Assembly polls began on Tuesday. Majithia (46), who was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act last month, had moved the High Court seeking anticipatory bail.The High Court on January 10 had granted an interim protection to Majithia from the arrest in the matter while directing him to join the investigation on January 12.The HC had also imposed some conditions, including not leaving the country.
The court had extended the interim protection on January 18.Majithia is the brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Badal and the brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.The former Punjab minister was booked under the NDPS Act on the basis of a 2018 report of a probe into a drugs racket operating in the state.The report was filed by anti-drug special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018.The 49-page FIR in the matter was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.Majithia was booked under Sections 25 (punishment for allowing one’s premises for its use for the commission of an offence), 27A (for financing sale, purchase, production, manufacture, possession, transportation, use or consumption, import and export or any act pertaining to narcotics) and 29 (abetting or plotting an offence) of the NDPS Act.In his bail plea, the SAD leader had submitted that the Congress government in Punjab had “left no stone unturned to misuse its powers and position for wreaking vengeance upon its political opponents”.
