A local court granted bail to Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira in a criminal intimidation case on Monday. Kapurthala Judicial Magistrate (first class) Supreet aur also asked the Congress MLA to furnish a bail bond of Rs 1 lakh.
Reportedly, the Kapurthala Police had lodged the case under sections 195A (threatening any person to give false evidence) and Section 506 of the Indian Penal Code (criminal initimidation) against Sukhpal Khaira on the complaint of Ranjit Kaur.
Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira was arrested in this case on January 4 after he was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in connection with a 2015 NDPS case. Ranjit Kaur is the wife of Kashmir Singh, who is a key witness in the 2015 drug case. Sukhpal Khaira was arrested in September in connection with the 2015 case, triggering accusations of political vendetta against the state’s ruling AAP from the Congress.
The aforesaid drugs case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Following, nine people, including Gurdev Singh, allegedly a close aide of Khaira, were booked in connection with the case and later convicted. The police had also seized two kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, a country-made pistol, a .315-bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them.
She further alleged that two unidentified masked persons came to her home on a motorcycle on October 15 last year and threatened to kill her family if Singh did not withdraw his statement against Khaira. She claimed that she received an anonymous call and was threatened that her family would be eliminated.
In the 2015 case, Sukhpal Khaira was summoned as an additional accused. Last year, he claimed that he was summoned despite the Supreme Court staying the trial court proceedings against him in 2017.
The Congress MLA was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 on charges of money laundering linked to the 2015 case. He was granted bail in 2022. Last February, the Supreme Court quashed the summons against Khaira in the 2015 case.