E-Paper
High court constitutes new special bench in Bhola drug racket case
The 2013 Jagdish Bhola drug racket case was assigned to the division bench of justices AG Masih and Ashok Kumar Verma and will be taken up on Tuesday
The Punjab and Haryana high court has constituted a new special bench in the 2013 Jagdish Bhola drug racket case.
The case was assigned to the division bench of justices AG Masih and Ashok Kumar Verma and will be taken up on Tuesday. Earlier, the case was being heard by the bench of justices Rajan Gupta and Ajay Tewari but the latter recusing from the case on September 1.
The Supreme Court had recently recommended transfer of Justice Gupta.
The new bench will on Tuesday take up an application in which it is being demanded that three crucial reports on the case be made public. The application was filed by Navkiran Singh, a lawyer who was an intervener in the 2013 suo motu petition initiated into the alleged ₹6,000 crore drug racket case.
The court is monitoring probe by various agencies in the case.
One of the reports is of then special task force (STF) head HS Sidhu while another of then Enforcement Directorate (ED) assistant director Niranjan Singh. The third report is of a committee headed by additional chief secretary (home). All are lying sealed in the high court since 2018. The reports are mainly on allegations of involvement of some high-profile politicians from Punjab in the drug racket.
