'Cases before elections', SC grants protection from arrest to Bikram Singh Majithia till Feb 23
Darpan News Desk IANS, 31 Jan, 2022 12:00 PM
New Delhi, Jan 31 (IANS) The Supreme Court on Monday protected Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest in a drugs case till February 23.
A bench headed by Chief Justice N.V. Ramana told the Punjab government counsel to advise his government to refrain from launching criminal cases against the political opponents, just before the election. The top court directed Majithia to surrender on February 24 before the trial court and seek regular bail.
Senior advocate P. Chidambaram, representing the Punjab government, submitted before the bench, also comprising Justices A.S. Bopanna and Hima Kohli, that Punjab is sinking under drug trade and the youth are in danger. He added that it is a case of international drug racket and there have been money transactions, where Majithia mediated, and pressed for his custodial interrogation.
The Chief Justice told Chidambaram there is an allegation that it is a politically motivated case and asked, when will the elections get over? He pointed at a mentioning of another case of an MLA from Punjab, where he cited a case registered against him and claimed that he was not allowed to file nomination. The Chief Justice added that suddenly such cases come up before the election, and the court does not mean that the government should not crack down on the drug mafia.
"Let him file nomination and campaign, once it is over he will surrender before the police... and apply for regular bail", said the bench.
Senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, representing Majithia, submitted that for six years there were thorough probes and nothing was found against his client.
Majithia, the brother-n-law of SAD chief Sukhbir Badal, is in the fray for the February 20 assembly polls from Majitha, near Amritsar. He had moved the high court after a Mohali court dismissed his anticipatory bail petition in a case under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act registered on December 20.
In a 49-page FIR filed by the state police Crime Branch at the Mohali police station, the SAD leader has been booked under sections 25, 27A and 29 of the NDPS Act.
India's capital allowed businesses and shops to reopen with limited hours and the Delhi Metro, which serves New Delhi and adjoining areas, also resumed operations at 50% capacity.
After Upendra Kushwaha and Sanjay Singh, Umesh Thakur, the Siwan district president of the JD-U, jumped into the fray and said that Pandey has a long criminal history. He had also molested a young girl in a train.
The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday condemned the Congress government in Punjab for allegedly discriminating against teachers and forcing them to come to the streets, and asked state Education Minister Vijay Inder Singla not to behave in an 'arrogant' and 'dictatorial' manner and resolve the grievances of government school teachers immediately.
Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Badal on Thursday demanded a high court monitored probe into the manner in which the Congress government in Punjab was playing with the people's lives by creating an artificial shortage of vaccines by selling vaccine doses at a hefty profit to private hospitals.
The electronic conversation took place as US President Joe Biden announced on Thursday that India will receive Covid vaccines directly from the US stockpile, the White House said.
The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), General M.M. Naravane, reached Kashmir on Wednesday on a two-day visit to review the prevailing security situation in the Union Territory (UT), the army said in a statement.
