'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.
The petitioner contended that her daughter is a permanent resident of the US, while her son holds an American passport. Jauhar argued that children have been taken to an "undisclosed destination", as they are neither in Chennai nor at Tamil Nadu's Virudhnagar, and that his client suspects they have been taken to Maharashtra.
After failing to get any information about Gurdeep's whereabouts since he left Delhi a week ago, his uncle Shamsher Singh, who is also at Singhu, lodged the missing complaint at Kundli police station which falls under Sonepat district of Haryana and is very near the farmers' protest site.
Her resignation came hours after she was given water supply and sanitation, social security, women and child development, printing, and stationery departments in the new Cabinet led by Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi.
There is a Twitter war going on between senior BJP Rajya Sabha MP Subramanian Swamy and Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga, the national secretary of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) with allegations and counter allegations flying thick and fast against each other.
Terming Sidhu's resignation as sheer drama, Amarinder Singh said the move suggests that his former Cabinet colleague is preparing the ground to quit the Congress and join hands with some other party in the run-up to the Assembly polls scheduled next year.
The campaign will celebrate and curate innovative, sustainable and equitable climate solutions and actions being pioneered by young people in India. The focus is on strengthening engagement with governments and civil society for a more collaborative approach to climate action, a release said.
