Supreme Court grants bail to Akali leader Bikram Majithia in Rs 540-crore corruption case

The Punjab and Haryana High Court denied bail to Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia in December last year.

3 min readNew DelhiUpdated: Feb 3, 2026 05:24 AM IST

Supreme Court grants bail to Akali leader Bikram Majithia.

(Express Photo)

The Supreme Court Monday granted bail to Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly accumulating disproportionate assets of over Rs 540 crore.

A bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta passed the order while hearing Majithia’s plea challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court’s order, which denied him bail in the case.

Giving him the relief, the bench ordered, “Considering the facts and circumstances of the case, and in particular the fact that the petitioner was granted bail in the earlier NDPS matter in 2022, against which the Special Leave Petition filed by the state was dismissed by this court in 2025, and further the petitioner has already been in custody for the last 7 months, and the police report under Section 173(2) has already been filed, further the fact that the disproportionate assets case relates to the check period from 2007-2017, and the FIR has been lodged in 2025 under PC Act, we are inclined to grant bail”.

“It would be open for prosecution to impress upon the trial court to impose stringent conditions on the petitioner while releasing him on bail as may be necessary”.

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The corruption case was lodged based on a June 2025 report by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), which had probed an earlier FIR against Majithia and others under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985. The report stated that he and his wife had accumulated wealth exceeding Rs 540 crore through illegal entities.

The senior Akali leader was arrested on June 25, 2025.

The Punjab and Haryana High Court denied bail to Majithia in December last year.

“The petitioner is accused of serious economic offences. Investigation of the case has revealed huge unaccounted money in his bank accounts, as also setting up of a large number of companies through which the financial transactions have been carried out surreptitiously for his benefit. It has also come to the notice of the investigating agency that money has been routed through some foreign entities based in Singapore and Cyprus.’

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It added that Majithia is “directly or indirectly in control of most of these entities with immediate family members, and appears to be the key beneficiary”.

“The transactions as well as the assets accumulated by routing the money in the manner aforementioned are being investigated. All this has adverse ramifications for the financial health of the State…”.

“The investigating agency has cited about twenty material witnesses, who have been termed vulnerable. In case the petitioner is to be released from custody at this stage, the possibility of his influencing the further course of investigation, trying to cover up the questionable transactions, manipulating the record relating to the same, and influencing the concerned persons/witnesses not to cooperate with the investigating agency, cannot be ruled out,” said the Punjab and Haryana HC.