The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia to appear before the Special Investigation Team in connection with a drug trafficking case on March 17.
A bench of Justice J K Maheshwari and Justice Aravind Kumar said if needed, Majithia will also appear before the SIT on March 18 as well at the same time.
The top court order came on an appeal by the Punjab government against a Punjab and Haryana High Court order granting bail to Majithia in the case.
The top court bench has now posted the matter for hearing on March 24.
Seeking the cancellation of bail, Advocate General of Punjab, Gurminder Singh, told the bench that Majithia is not cooperating with the investigation and is refusing to reply to queries.
However, Majithia’s counsel said that he was being harassed for political reasons and asked the court to fix dates for interrogation.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court had granted bail to Majithia in August 2022.
The top court on January 31, 2022, granted protection to Majithia from arrest till February 23, 2022, in view of the February 20 assembly polls to contest as a SAD candidate from the Amritsar East assembly constituency.
Majithia surrendered after the expiry of the protection period.
On March 20, 2022, in his first orders to Punjab Police after assuming charge, Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann reconstituted the four members Special Investigation Team (SIT) investigating the drugs case against Majithia. The previous SIT was a three-member team.
The SIT was formed to probe allegations against Majithia based on an FIR lodged under various sections of the NDPS Act on December 20, 2021.