While granting bail to Khaira, former leader of opposition in Punjab vidhan sabha, the bench headed by Justice Anoop Chitkara noticed, “An analysis of the response leads to a clear inference that the evidence collected against the petitioner, which does not form part of the first trial, is sketchy and inconclusive.” After Khaira’s role had surfaced during the investigation by the new special investigation team, he was arraigned as accused in this case on September 28 last year and arrested on the same morning. Since then he was in Nabha jail from where he was taken by Kapurthala police on Thursday morning.
Interestingly, the high court on Thursday also dismissed Khaira’s second petition seeking pre-arrest bail with an apprehension that as soon as he comes out of the jail on bail, the state police might arrest him in a case under the Prevention of Corruption Act. Khaira has submitted that the government has launched a witch hunt against him, and he is already in custody in an NDPS case. After taking note of the vigilance bureau’s affidavit that till date no vigilance inquiry or FIR has been registered against Khaira, the court dismissed the petition stating, “Given above, the apprehension is ill founded and no case for any relief is made out at this stage.” However, the high court granted him the liberty to approach the court again.
While granting bail to Khaira in drugs case, the court observed, “Given this background, 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, and its most likely effect on the final outcome would be sufficient for satisfaction of conditions of Section 37 of NDPS Act.” The court further added, “Regarding the second rider of Section 37, this court will put very stringent conditions in this order to ensure that the petitioner does not repeat the offence.”
Khaira’s Arrest Was Not Illegal
The bench headed by Justice Anoop Chitkara also dismissed Khaira’s third petition on Thursday challenging special court’s orders allowing further investigation in the drugs case registered in March 2015, his arrest and police remand, and judicial magistrate first class (JMIC) Fazilka’s order of September 28, 2023 of sending him to custody.
The court pointed out that it is crystal clear that the investigating agency was able to collect fresh material, which is other than the material that forms part of the first criminal trial, and that the investigation in the FIR was never closed, and was continuing even after filing the first police report against 10 accused. “The Constitutional Bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court had neither barred further investigation nor had the subsequent two-member bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court given any clean chit to the petitioner or stopped any further investigation,” said the court. It further added, “Thus, further investigation and the petitioner’s arrest were neither illegal nor did they violate any order mentioned above of the Hon’ble Supreme Court.”
