Chandigarh : The Punjab and Haryana high court ruled that Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira’s arrest in the 2015 FIR was not illegal.
“It is crystal clear that the investigating agency was able to collect fresh material, which is other than the material that forms part of the first criminal trial, and that the investigation in the FIR was never closed and was continuing even after filing the first police report against 10 accused,” the HC bench of justice Anoop Chitkara.
It further added that the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court had neither barred further investigation nor had the subsequent two-member bench of the Supreme Court given any clean chit to Khaira or stopped any further probe. Thus, further investigation and the petitioner’s arrest were neither illegal nor did they violate any order mentioned above of the SC,” the bench observed.
This plea was moved by Khaira in September 2023 at the time of his arrest, terming police move illegal and in violation of the apex court order. The plea had claimed that the controversy was accorded “quietus and complete closure” by the apex court in February 2023 and that it was a case of political vendetta.
However, the court made it clear that at the charge stage, the special judge concerned would keep in mind that the evidence prohibited by the apex court is not considered for the remaining charges. It also gave liberty to Khaira to raise all the legal points at the charge stage.
Granting bail to Khaira in the drugs case, the bench of justice Anoop Chitkara observed that an analysis of the response from the state leads to a clear inference that the evidence collected against Khaira, which does not form part of the first trial, is “sketchy and inconclusive”.
{{/usCountry}}Granting bail to Khaira in the drugs case, the bench of justice Anoop Chitkara observed that an analysis of the response from the state leads to a clear inference that the evidence collected against Khaira, which does not form part of the first trial, is “sketchy and inconclusive”.
{{/usCountry}}Khaira had approached high court seeking bail on October 16.
The bench further said that the possibility of Khaira influencing the investigation, tampering with evidence, intimidating witnesses, and the likelihood of fleeing, can be taken care of by imposing stringent conditions.
The court also noted that Khaira’s custodial interrogation did not lead to the recovery of any other incriminating evidence, and once an accused has already been subjected to custodial interrogation, the parameters to assess the evidence collected so far are different than while dealing with an anticipatory bail because the accused in such a situation was not subjected to the custodial interrogation, which is undoubtedly more productive to gather evidence.