SC judge recuses from hearing Punjab govt plea against bail to Majithia
Darpan News Desk IANS, 30 Jan, 2023 12:21 PM
New Delhi, Jan 30 (IANS) Supreme Court judge Justice Surya Kant on Monday recused himself from hearing a Punjab government plea challenging the high court order, which granted bail to Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia in a drug case.
The matter was listed for Monday before a bench of Justices Surya Kant and J.K. Maheshwari.
As soon as the matter came up for hearing, Justice Surya Kant said he was part of the high court bench which passed directions to set up a special task force to investigate the matter.
Majithia, the brother-in-law of SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, had been lodged in the Patiala jail on February 24 last year.
The Punjab government, represented by senior advocate Shyam Divan, moved the apex court challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order dated August 10, 2022.
The bench ordered: "Let the matter be listed before a bench in which one of us (Justice Kant) is not a member."
Granting bail to Majithia, the high court had observed that there were "reasonable grounds" to believe that he is not guilty. Majithia was released after spending more than five months in the Patiala jail in the drug case.
However, the high court had clarified that the trial court should proceed independently of the observations made by it. Majithia was booked on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force (STF) into a drug racket in the state.
In a statement here, the SAD President said instead of instilling confidence in people of Punjab by taking appropriate steps, the Chief Minister had fled the state to campaign for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) in Gujarat along with his cabinet.
These programmes will be held in Jalandhar, SAS Nagar (Mohali), Ludhiana, Moga and Amritsar on December 16, 19, 23, 26 and 30, respectively. NRI Affairs Minister Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal said issues and complaints of NRI Punjabis will be resolved promptly as well as on the spot during these meetings.
Earlier on Tuesday, a Delhi court allowed Delhi Police to conduct a narco test on Aaftab on December 1 and 5, after hearing an application moved by the police on this count. Aaftab, during interrogation, was deceptive in nature and tried to mislead the interrogators.
Notably, the drive against glorification of weapons had been launched on the directions of Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to curb this trend. Under this drive, verification of licensed weapons are being carried out, besides verifying addresses of licensees.
According to the police, the murder occurred on May 30 and so far, six body parts have been recovered while a search is underway for the missing remains. The accused have been identified as Poonam and her son Deepak. Sources said that after chopping Anjan Das's body, the duo had stored the body parts in their fridge and started gradually disposing them.
According to the official, the victim Sanjay Yadav has a property dispute with one Ramesh Yadav in the village Barihari under Chakia police station in the district. The neighbours rushed them to the primary health centre in Chakia where the woman succumbed to her injuries.
