Court rejects Majithia’s plea for separate cell in Nabha jail

Former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia will continue to share a barrack with undertrials and criminals in the Nabha jail after a local court on Wednesday rejected his plea for a separate cell

Mohali :Former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia will continue to share a barrack with undertrials and criminals in the Nabha jail after a local court on Wednesday rejected his plea for a separate cell.

Former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia will continue to share a barrack with undertrials and criminals in the Nabha jail after a local court on Wednesday rejected his plea for a separate cell.

Majithia has been lodged in jail since June 25 this year, following his arrest by the Punjab vigilance bureau (VB) from his Amritsar residence in a disproportionate assets (DA) case involving the alleged laundering of ₹540 crore of “drug money”.

While dismissing the request, the court directed the Punjab government and jail authorities to ensure foolproof security arrangements for the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader in line with the Punjab and Haryana high court directions and the jail manual.

Majithia, however, secured partial relief as the court permitted him to meet his family members and lawyers twice a week in a separate room. His counsel Arshdeep Singh Kler said the permission extends to 10 visitors approved by the family, including his legal team, with meetings to be held one-on-one.

In another order, the court instructed the VB to provide Majithia and his lawyers a copy of the chargesheet. “The VB had created a spectacle by submitting truckloads of papers in the court, arguing that the challan was too bulky to supply. The court has now directed them to hand it over,” Kler said.

Kler also raised concerns about his client’s safety, citing threats from criminal gangs and “anti-national agencies”. The court took note of these apprehensions and asked the state to strengthen security inside the jail.

On August 22, the Punjab VB submitted a 40,000-page chargesheet against Majithia in a Mohali court. The DA case stems from an SIT probe into Majithia’s alleged role in the 2021 drug case. He had earlier been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, based on a 2018 report, and spent over five months in Patiala Jail before being granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court in August 2022.