A Mohali court on Tuesday restrained the Punjab Vigilance Bureau from conducting arbitrary searches at the properties of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who is in judicial custody in an alleged ₹540-crore disproportionate assets case.
Acting on a plea filed by Majithia’s counsel Arshdeep Singh Kler on Tuesday, the court directed that any visit to the SAD leader’s premises by the vigilance bureau must be solely for evaluation purposes and only after providing prior notice to his legal counsel.
Speaking to the media outside the court, Kler claimed that although the court had permitted the investigating officer (IO) to visit Majithia’s premises, the officer instead dispatched vigilance teams to three locations—Delhi, Amritsar, and Majitha—on Tuesday morning.
“This action was not only unauthorised but was also leaked to the media to stage a media trial,” Kler alleged. He added that an urgent application was moved before the court, following which the court ordered an immediate halt to the raids.
“The court has clearly stated that the vigilance bureau cannot conduct any raids at Majithia’s premises. Visits can only be made for evaluation, and even that must be preceded by a 24-hour notice to me,” said Kler.
{{/usCountry}}“The court has clearly stated that the vigilance bureau cannot conduct any raids at Majithia’s premises. Visits can only be made for evaluation, and even that must be preceded by a 24-hour notice to me,” said Kler.
{{/usCountry}}He further clarified that the evaluation is limited to properties listed by the VB in the documents as submitted before the court.
The court has scheduled the next hearing in the case for July 22 and has directed the vigilance bureau to produce complete videographic evidence of the raids conducted on Tuesday.
Majithia was arrested on June 25 from his residence in Amritsar by the vigilance bureau in connection with an ongoing investigation into his assets allegedly disproportionate to his known sources of income. He remained in vigilance custody for 12 days before being sent to judicial custody on July 6.
The case is linked to a broader investigation by the Punjab Police’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) into a 2021 drug case, in which Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, based on a 2018 report by the state’s anti-drug Special Task Force (STF). He had previously spent over five months in Patiala Jail before being granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in August 2022.