No relief for Bikram Singh Majithia in DA case as Punjab and Haryana High Court gives 3 weeks to amend plea against arrest
The Punjab and Haryana High Court will now hear the matter on July 29. Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia is in judicial custody at Nabha jail.
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Hearing Majithia’s petition challenging his arrest and remand, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya granted his legal team three weeks to amend the plea. (File Photo)The Punjab and Haryana High Court Tuesday granted three weeks to Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia to amend his petition challenging his arrest by the state’s Vigilance Bureau for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income.
Hearing Majithia’s petition challenging his arrest and remand, Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya granted his legal team three weeks to amend the plea. The matter will now be heard on July 29.
Majithia, who is currently lodged in Nabha jail under judicial custody till July 19, moved the high court seeking relief against what he termed his “illegal arrest and remand.”
The Punjab Vigilance Bureau registered the First Information Report (FIR) at 4.30 am on June 25 in Mohali, under Sections 13(1)(b) read with 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act. Following the registration of the case, searches were conducted at 26 locations linked to Majithia across the state. He was arrested from his Amritsar residence later that morning.
In his petition, Majithia has alleged that the FIR is a result of “political witch-hunting and vendetta” and was intended to malign him. He claimed he has been a vocal critic of the ruling regime. The plea also states that he was picked up from his residence around 9 am — over two hours before his formal arrest at 11.20 am — which, it argues, amounts to illegal detention in violation of his constitutional and statutory rights.
Citing video evidence and the remand order issued on June 26, the petition contends that this delay breaches Article 22(2) of the Constitution and Section 187 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (previously Section 167 CrPC), which mandates that a person taken into custody must be produced before a magistrate within 24 hours of arrest.
Majithia was earlier sent to six days of police custody by a court in Mohali. On July 6, after the end of his remand, he was remanded in judicial custody till July 19.
Jail authorities at Nabha have installed CCTV cameras inside his barrack citing security reasons, and have clarified that no special privileges are being extended to him.
On July 4, the Punjab and Haryana High Court issued notice to the Punjab Government on Majithia’s petition, but declined to grant interim relief and adjourned the matter to July 8. Punjab Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi had appeared in person on that date.
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