Punjab NDPS case: SAD leader Bikram Majithia granted bail

Chandigarh, Aug 10: The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drugs case.

A division bench of justices MS Ramachandra Rao and Sureshwar Thakur pronounced the verdict on the bail plea of Majithia, one of his counsels Arshdeep Singh Kler said.

Majithia had surrendered after the February 20 state assembly polls and is currently lodged in a Patiala jail.

The division bench had reserved the order on the plea of the Shiromani Akali Dal leader on July 29.

Majithia had approached the high court on May 23, seeking bail in the case registered against him under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in December 2021.

The former minister was booked under the NDPS Act on December 20 last year during the previous Congress government.

Majithia is the brother-in-law of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Majithia, in his bail plea, had submitted that the FIR against him was registered with a malafide objective to target the petitioner.

The SAD leader had submitted that the previous Congress government in Punjab had ''left no stone unturned to misuse its powers and position for wreaking vengeance upon its political opponents''.

The SAD had termed the registration of the FIR against Majithia as "political vendetta".

Majithia was booked under the NDPS Act on the basis of a 2018 report of a probe into a drug racket in the state.

In February, a court in Mohali had rejected Majithia's regular bail plea after he surrendered on February 24 before it.

Majithia had even approached the Supreme Court in May but it asked the SAD leader to move the high court.

Earlier, the apex court had directed the Punjab Police to not arrest the former Punjab minister till February 23 in the drugs case so that he can undertake electioneering in the state.