The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the Punjab government not to take any coercive step against Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia till January 31 when it hears his pre-arrest bail plea in a drugs case.
A bench comprising Chief Justice N V Ramana and Justices A S Bopanna and Hima Kohli took note of the submissions of senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, appearing for Majithia, that the plea seeking anticipatory bail plea needed urgent hearing as the accused has been facing "political vendetta".
The pre-arrest bail plea of Majithia, who has been booked under the NDPS Act, was dismissed by the Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 24.
Majithia is the brother-in-law of Sukhbir Badal and the brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The former Punjab minister was booked under the NDPS Act on the basis of a 2018 report of a probe into a drugs racket operating in the state.
The report was filed by the anti-drug special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018.
The 49-page FIR in the matter was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.
Majithia was booked under sections 25 (punishment for allowing one's premises for its use for the commission of an offence), 27A (for financing sale, purchase, production, manufacture, possession, transportation, use or consumption, import and export or any act pertaining to narcotics) and 29 (abetting or plotting an offence) of the NDPS Act.
(With inputs from PTI)
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