Punjab Congress MLA gets bail, held in new case; party calls it vendetta

In her complaint, Ranjit Kaur stated that five persons came to her house with their faces covered, and threatened her with dire consequences if she gave a statement against Khaira.

Khaira’s son Mehtab Khaira alleged that the new case had been registered as part of a conspiracy to arrest his father. “If Khaira was still in jail, how could he threaten anyone or intimidate anyone?” he said, adding they would take legal recourse to seek justice.

Punjab Congress president Amrinder Singh Raja Warring, in a post on X, slammed the AAP government in the state over the new FIR and called it “proof” of “vendetta politics”.

“The FIR has been registered just to harass him even further. This is not Badlaav… this is Badla!” he said.

AAP chief spokesperson Malvinder Singh Kang said he had already made it clear that the law would take its own course, and would not spare anyone.

“As far as the alliance between both the parties is concerned, if Congress leaders have any issue, they should go and tell their national leadership. If they want to contest elections alone, they should know that AAP is also ready to contest not only 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab, but also the Chandigarh seat, all alone,” he said.

“However, a decision on the alliance in Punjab will be taken in the next meeting of AAP. I cannot disclose what the state unit wants to do. That is our internal matter. But we will follow the decision taken by our party leadership,” Kang said.

In the earlier case, Khaira was arrested on September 28 last year.

Allowing his bail plea Thursday, the bench of Justice Anoop Chitkara said Khaira was arrested prima facie on the evidence of calls he had made to his personal security officer, personal assistant and a handler from the UK, as well as unexplained money linked to the drugs trade.

The bench said Khaira’s custodial interrogation did not lead to the recovery of any other incriminating evidence.

“…the calls between the petitioner and his PSO, PA, and the handler from UK; the disproportionate money which the Enforcement Directorate has already seized; absence of any recovery or any incriminating evidence during the petitioner’s custodial interrogation; and the evidentiary value of a disclosure statement made by a co-accused, whose pardon has been approved, and the absence of any other evidence connecting the petitioner, it can be inferred at this stage that for the purpose of satisfying the rigours of Section 37 of NDPS Act, the petitioner cannot be said to be prima facie guilty…,” the bench said.

It also directed Khaira to surrender all weapons, firearms and ammunition, if any, along with his arms licence.

The developments that led to the registration of the case date back to March 5, 2015. Police said that on receiving information of an international drug mafia operating on the Pakistan border, they carried out a raid and recovered heroin, gold and pistols.

The police filed a chargesheet against 11 accused, but did not name Khaira as an accused either in the FIR or in the chargesheet.

On June 11, 2017, the Punjab government constituted an SIT to investigate the matter. At the final stage of the trial, the state moved an application to summon Khaira as an accused.

The special judge convicted and sentenced nine accused, and issued a non-bailable warrant against Khaira. After the High Court dismissed his challenge against the non-bailable warrant, Khaira moved the Supreme Court.

On February 9, 2023, the Supreme Court quashed the orders passed by the trial court judge and the High Court. Khaira filed an application before the special court of Fazilka to drop the proceedings which it allowed, but said it would be without prejudice to the investigating agency’s right to probe the alleged involvement of the accused in the case.

In September 2023, another SIT, set up to investigate the case, added offences under sections of the NDPS Act to the FIR and arraigned Khaira along with his personal security officer, personal assistant and four others as additional accused. Khaira was arrested on September 28.