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New Delhi: On Wednesday, The Punjab government suffered a setback in the Supreme Court after its plea to cancel Congress MLA Sukhpakl Khaira’s bail in a drugs case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act and the Arms Act. The Punjab and Haryana High Court granted bail to MLA Khaira in December last year.
However, before he could be released from prison, the Punjab Police arrested him in a fresh case. The top court said it would not interfere with the order passed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
The latest case against Khaira was registered under Sections 195A (threatening any person to give false evidence) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code. The court also reprimanded the ruling Aam Aadmi Party, telling it “you should have been cautious and careful while filing the chargesheet… if you thought Khaira was also involved in this crime, then you should have named Khaira from the beginning”.
The court rejecting the AAP’s plea comes as it and the Congress are supposed to be contesting the Chandigarh mayoral election together. Khaira was arrested from his Chandigarh residence in September last year in an eight-year-old case registered under the NDPS Act.
While Congress termed it as AAP’s vendetta politics, Kejriwal’s party described the development as part of its “zero-tolerance policy” against drugs. In 2015, two cases related to cross-border drug smuggling network were reported in Fazilka, Punjab, in which heroin, gold biscuits, weapons, cartridges and Pakistani SIM cards were seized.
As the trial continued, nine smugglers, including Gurdev Singh, Manjeet Singh, Harbans Singh and Subhash Chander, were sentenced in October 2017 in connection with the Fazilka case.According to the charge sheet, Khaira was closely associated with Gurdev Singh, the leader of the Fazilka drug smuggling racket and is accused of harboring him.
The primary charges against Khaira included supporting an international gang of smugglers, harboring and receiving financial benefits from drug traffickers and enjoying the proceeds of crime. On February 16, 2023, the Supreme Court bench of Justices BR Gavai and Vikram Nath quashed the summoning order against Khaira in the drugs case.
