Punjab HC grants bail to Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in drugs and Arms Act case

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 rigors of section 37 of NDPS Act, the petitioner cannot be said to be prima facie guilty for any allegations…,” Justice Chitkara said.

The bench 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. On receiving information that an international drug mafia was operating at the Pakistan border and that one person named Harbans Singh was facilitating drug smuggling, the police raided the premises and recovered amounts of heroin, gold and pistols from various people.

The police filed a chargesheet against eleven accused people, but Khaira was not named as an accused either in the FIR or in the chargesheet. On June 11, 2017, the government constituted an SIT to investigate the matter. At the final stage of the trial, the state moved an application under CrPC section 319 to summon Khaira as an accused.

The special judge convicted and sentenced nine of the accused, acquitted one and issued a non-bailable warrant against Khaira. After the high court dismissed his challenge against the non-bailable warrant, he moved the Supreme Court in 2017.

On February 9, 2023, the Supreme Court quashed the orders passed by the trial judge as well as the high court. Khaira thus filed an application before the special court of Fazilka to drop the proceedings, which it allowed but ordered that the dropping of the proceedings would be without prejudice to the investigating agency’ right to probe the accused people’ alleged involvement in the case.

In September 2023, another SIT set up to investigate the case added offences under sections 27A and 27B of the NDPS Act to the FIR and arraigned Sukhpal Singh Khaira along with his personal security officer Joga Singh personal assistant Munish Kumar as well as Gurpreet Singh alias Gopi, Kashmir Singh alias Billa, Major Singh Bajwa and Charanjit Kaur as the additional accused. Khaira was arrested on September 28, 2023.

Through senior advocate Vikram Chaudhary, he argued in the high court that he had been arrested because he had parted ways with the AAP and that the party’s government was taking revenge on him by fabricating evidence. The counsel also argued that the Supreme Court had not granted leave to the government to conduct any further inquiry against Khaira.

Opposing the argument, Advocate-General Gurminder Singh stated that the FIR had been registered when AAP was not even in power and that Khaira’s allegations were meant to divert attention from his involvement in the heinous crime.

However, before he could be released from prison, the Punjab police arrested Khaira in a fresh case. The latest case was registered in the Subhanpur police station under sections 195A (threatening any person to give false evidence) and 506 (criminal intimidation) of the Indian Penal Code.