Punjab: Mohali court rejects SAD leader Bikram Majithia`s bail plea in drug case

SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia will now appeal before the Punjab high court for bail in a drug case.

Chandigarh: A Mohali court on Friday rejected Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia's regular bail plea, a day after he was remanded in judicial custody following his surrender before a court in connection with a drug case.

Majithia was remanded in judicial custody for two weeks by the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Sandeep Kumar Singla.

The Akali leader, who was on Thursday evening taken to a Patiala jail, had moved the bail plea, which was taken up by the Mohali court on Friday.

"The court on Friday rejected the regular bail plea," said Arshdeep Singh Kaler, one of Majithia's counsels.

"We will appeal before the High Court now," he said.

The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) had earlier called the registration of the FIR against Majithia as "political vendetta" and said three DGPs and three Directors of Bureau of Investigation were changed and police officers were allegedly coerced to falsely implicate the leader.

The Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the case had questioned Majithia for over an hour in the court complex in Mohali on Thursday.

The apex court had recently directed the Punjab Police not to arrest the former Punjab minister till February 23 so that he could undertake electioneering in the state.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli had, however, directed Majithia to surrender before a trial court after the Punjab Assembly polls on February 20.

It had also directed the trial court to hear and expeditiously decide Majithia's regular bail plea after his surrender in the case.

The pre-arrest bail plea of Majithia, who was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20 last year, was dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 24.

Majithia, who is the SAD MLA and brother-in-law of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, contested the February 20 polls from the Amritsar East against Punjab Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu.

The results of the Assembly elections will be announced on March 10.

Majithia, 46, was booked under the NDPS Act on the basis of a 2018 probe report into a drug racket in the state.

The 49-page FIR was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station last year.