Punjab & Haryana HC seeks state’s reply on Majithia’s plea against arrest

CHANDIGARH, July 4: The Punjab and Haryana High Court Friday asked the Punjab advocate general to respond to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia’s plea against arrest and remand in a disproportionate assets case.
Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya deferred the hearing to July 8 without any interim relief to the SAD leader.
The court also asked Punjab Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi to seek instructions on the plea, said Majithia’s counsel Arshdeep Singh Kler.
“The state counsel has been asked to take instructions on what is the petition and what is the petitioner’s grouse. The AG himself has appeared in the court,” Kler told mediapersons after the hearing.
Kler said the court asked for placing an amended remand order on record.
The lawyer said a fresh remand order of the Mohali court was placed on record on July 3.
“But in the fresh remand order in which July 5 was mentioned as, an amendment has been made. Now an amended remand order has been issued in which the date has been changed from July 5 to July 6. The high court now asked for placing this (amended remand order) on record,” Kler said.
Majithia, arrested in the DA case, was sent to a seven-day vigilance remand by the Mohali court on June 26.
The court on July 2 extended Majithia’s remand by four days more after his seven-day remand ended.
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on June 25 arrested Majithia in the DA case allegedly involving laundering of Rs 540 crore of “drug money”.
Majithia on July 1 moved the HC against the DA case, calling it “political witch-hunting and vendetta” for being a vocal critic of the current dispensation.
He sought the appropriate relief against the “illegal” arrest and subsequent remand granted in the FIR registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988.
“The said FIR is a result of political witch-hunting and vendetta, initiated by the present political dispensation with the sole object of maligning and harassing the petitioner who has been a vocal critic and political opponent,” the petition read.
The plea argued that the FIR registered against him was “patently illegal” while his arrest was carried out in “gross violation of settled legal procedures”.
“The remand application filed by the investigating agency lacked (VB) any concrete or urgent investigative ground and merely relied on broad, speculative allegations such as the petitioner’s alleged influence, foreign connections, and general statements about the need to confront him with documents or digital devices,” it said.
The petitioner submitted that the Supreme Court, by its detailed order on March 4, had refused custodial interrogation of the petitioner despite the same allegations being pressed before it via multiple affidavits filed by the State of Punjab.
The present petition, therefore, raises important questions of law and principle concerning abuse of criminal process, misuse of remand powers, and the right to fair investigation and liberty, it added.
Majithia, therefore, sought quashing of the remand order and directions to prevent further “abuse” of process.
In the fresh FIR registered against Majithia, the VB claimed that preliminary investigations revealed that more than Rs 540 crore of “drug money” has been laundered through several ways and it was allegedly facilitated by Majithia.
The FIR against Majithia stems from an ongoing investigation being conducted by a Punjab Police special investigation team into the 2021 drug case.
In 2021, Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The action was taken on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug Special Task Force.
He spent over five months in Patiala Jail and walked out of prison in August 2022 after the high court granted him bail. (PTI)

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