Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira arrested in 2015 drugs case
Khaira was seen arguing with the police personnel and demanded his arrest warrants. He also asked the police personnel to identify themselves as some of them were in plain clothes.
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Congress's Sukhpal Singh Khaira said in a Facebook live that he was being arrested
to settle political scores. (Screenshot) Congress MLA from Bolath Sukhpal Singh Khaira was on Thursday morning arrested in connection with a 2015 narcotics case. A team of Fazilka police led by Superintendent of Police Manjeet Singh also raided his Chandigarh residence around 6 am before making the arrest.
The MLA’s son went live on Facebook showing that a team of Punjab Police has reached their residence to apprehend Khaira. In the video, Khaira could be seen arguing with the police team and asking them to show him the arrest warrant and identity cards of the police officers who were part of the raiding team. A police personnel can be seen telling him that he was DSP Jalalabad Acchru Ram Sharma and that Khaira was being arrested in the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act case. To this, Khaira can be heard saying that the Supreme Court has already quashed that case. When Khaira asked the team where he was being taken, a police officer told him that he was being taken to Jalalabad in Fazilka, where the case has been registered.
Khaira, the head of AICC’s farmers’ wing, the All India Kisan Congress, was also seen protesting
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against the police for entering his bedroom in the morning.
The Congress MLA has been vociferous against the government. He has been tweeting against the government and criticising its policies.
According to official sources, a special investigation team (SIT) led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Swapan Sharma was formed in April 2023 and Khaira was arrested based on its investigation into the 2015 case.
Later in the day, Khaira was produced in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate( SDJM) Rampal in Fazilka’s Jalalabad after being arrested from Chandigarh. While police had sought a seven-day remand from the court, the local court sent him to a two-day police remand.
Khaira, meanwhile, questioned the police action and alleged highhandedness by the state government. He said in a Facebook live that he was arrested to settle the political scores.
Slamming the Bhagwant Mann government, Khaira, who has been critical of the AAP government on various issues, claimed that he was being apprehended in a “false” case and that “jungle raj” was prevailing in the state.
The Congress on Thursday also hit out at the Aam Aadmi Party government over Khaira’s arrest, saying this was proof of “politics of revenge” and an attempt to suppress the voice of the opposition by the state dispensation.
Sources said the Congress leadership is miffed especially since the party went out of its way to support the AAP in Parliament over the Delhi services Bill brought by the Modi government, and raised its voice against the suspension of AAP MPs Sanjay Singh and Raghav Chadha from the Rajya Sabha.
However, rejecting the Congress claims of political vendetta, AAP leader Malvinder Singh Kang Thursday said that action against the Bholath MLA was taken according to law.
He further claimed that Khaira was arrested by the Punjab Police after a special investigation team (SIT) found new facts in the drug case.
The drugs case in which Khaira has been arrested was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Nine people, including Gurdev Singh, who was allegedly a close aide of Khaira, were booked in the case and later convicted under the NDPS Act. Police had recovered 2 kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, one country-made pistol, a .315-bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them. Khaira’s name had cropped up during the police probe.
However, in 2017, the Supreme Court stayed the trial court proceedings against Khaira who was summoned as an additional accused in the matter. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 on the charge of money laundering linked to the 2015 drugs case but was granted bail in 2022. In February 2023, the apex court quashed the summoning order against Khaira in the 2015 case.
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