Supreme Court asks Punjab govt not to arrest SAD leader Majithia in drugs case till Jan 31

The Supreme Court on Thursday told the Punjab government not to take any coercive action against Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader, Bikram Singh Majithia in a drug case.

The top court granted him interim protection from arrest, before putting his anticipatory bail plea for consideration on Monday.

A bench of Chief Justice N V Ramana, and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli passed the order as the matter was mentioned by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi on behalf of Majithia.

The counsel said the case was a fall out of political vendetta.

"We don't know if this was election fever or election virus. Everyone is rushing to the court now," the bench observed.

Senior advocate P Chidambaram appearing for the state of Punjab, opposed the plea, saying that the order was passed on January 24, and thereafter he went into hiding.

"Tell your state (Punjab) not to do anything, We will hear the case on Monday," the bench told Chidambaram.

Majithia is the brother-in-law of Sukhbir Badal, the former deputy Chief minister of Punjab.

In his submission, Rohatgi said the present case is blatantly political in nature and has been registered in in view of the upcoming Assembly elections, with the malafide objective to target Majithia, who is a leader of the opposition party.

The counsel said Majithia was granted interim protection from arrest by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, which expired on Thursday.

The High Court had on January 24 rejected plea for anticipatory bail filed by Majithia in connection with an FIR registered under various provisions of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on December 20, last year at police station S A S Nagar by Punjab State Crime.

The petitioner claimed that the FIR was gross abuse of the process in law and vindictive in nature as it was lodged in 2021 against the incident on the basis of some statements made to the Enforcement Directorate in 2014.

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