NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea by the Punjab government against the High Courts January 4, 2024 order granting bail to Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a case registered against him under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
A bench of Justices Bela M Trivedi and K V Vishwanathan said the Court is not inclined to interfere with the High Court order.
Appearing for Khaira, Sr. Adv. P S Patwalia claimed that the state government had acted with malice against his client.
The Punjab government filed the plea in the apex court against the January 4, 2023 order of the high court.
Khaira, MLA from Bholath assembly constituency, was arrested on September 28, 2023 in 2015 case drug haul case.
The drugs case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Nine people, including Gurdev Singh - allegedly a close aide of Khaira - were booked in connection with the case and later convicted.
The police had seized two kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, a country-made pistol, a .315-bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them. The matter was probed by a Special Investigation Team.
Sr. Adv. Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the Punjab government, said the High Court has not considered that there is evidence against Khaira, gathered by the state from the Enforcement Directorate.
He said Khaira has threatened a person, who is going to make a statement against him as a witness.
Luthra asked the court to stay the High Court's order but the bench did not agree with his contention.
The Punjab government had contended that the bail order completely ignored Section 37 of NDPS Act which required the court to be satisfied that there were reasonable grounds for believing that the accused was not guilty of such offence and that he was not likely to commit any offence while on bail.
Following the High Courts order granting bail to Khaira in the NDPS case, he was arrested by the Punjab Police in a fresh case registered at Subhanpur police station on a complaint filed by the wife of a key witness in the 2015 drugs case, accusing him of criminal intimidation.
However, on January 15, 2024, he was granted bail by a Kapurthala court in the second case.
