Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief and frail Punjab cupboard minister Bikram Singh Majithia walked out of Nabha jail on Tuesday afternoon, ending 224 days of incarceration. His launch came a day after the Supreme Court docket granted him bail in a disproportionate property (DA) case tantalizing the alleged laundering of ₹540 crore.
Majithia was once greeted by ratings of Akali supporters and leaders, together with his necessary other and Majitha SAD MLA Ganieve Kaur Majithia, amid heavy police deployment delivery air the jail.
The launch adopted a correct fight in a Mohali court docket, the place the Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) moved an eleventh-hour application searching out stringent bond cases. In an extraordinary request, the convey prosecution asked the court docket to bar Majithia from residing in Punjab, suggesting he handiest be allowed to enter the convey for court docket hearings. The VB also sought to restrain the Akali chief from the spend of social media or making public statements, arguing that his “influential dwelling and harmful angle” toward investigators could also prejudice the trial and result in perceive tampering.
Alternatively, the Mohali court docket declined the convey’s request for such restrictive measures. The court docket seen that since Majithia is a everlasting resident of Punjab, a ban on his entry into the convey was once unjustified. It additional stable his constitutional factual to free speech by rejecting the proposed social media gag. Majithia’s counsel, advocate HS Dhanoa, acknowledged that the court docket’s resolution upheld foremost rights in opposition to “unreasonable limits” sought by the prosecution.
Majithia was once at the foundation arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau from his Amritsar place of abode on June 25 final year.
The case stems from a 2021 drug probe, with the VB filing a 40,000-web page chargesheet on August 22 alleging that Majithia facilitated the laundering of drug cash. Whereas the convey expressed apprehensions of a “parallel media trial”, the Supreme Court docket’s February 2 justify paved the intention for his launch, leaving the trial court docket to set up same old bail cases which were finalised earlier presently.
(With inputs by Aarya Kumari in Mohali)
