SC grants protection to Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest till Feb 23

New Delhi, Jan 31: The Supreme Court on Monday granted protection to SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia from arrest till Feb 23 in a drugs case.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice of India NV Ramana asked trial court to hear, decide expeditiously SAD leader Majithia's bail plea after he surrenders in drugs case.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 24 had dismissed Majithia's anticipatory bail plea.

The High Court had granted three-day protection from arrest to Majithia for approaching the top court to challenge its order in which the anticipatory bail plea of the former minister was dismissed.

Majithia (46), who was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act last month, had moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail after a Mohali court dismissed his pre-arrest bail plea on December 24.

Majithia, who made his first public appearance on Tuesday after registration of the case against him, had accused Channi and Randhawa of hatching a conspiracy against him.

The former Punjab minister was booked on December 20 last year 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.