The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Friday deferred hearing till July 8 on the plea filed by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia challenging his arrest and extended remand in a disproportionate assets (DA) case linked to alleged laundering of ₹540 crore in ‘drug money’.
A single-judge bench of Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya did not grant interim relief to Majithia but directed Punjab Advocate General Maninderjit Singh Bedi to seek instructions on the issues raised in the petition before the next date of hearing. The court has not yet issued a formal notice on the plea.
Majithia was arrested by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau on June 25 and sent to a seven-day vigilance remand by a Mohali court on June 26. This was further extended by four days on July 2. He approached the High Court on July 1 seeking quashing of the remand order, terming the FIR and his arrest as acts of “political witch-hunting and vendetta.”
His petition argues that the case raises significant questions concerning the misuse of criminal law, abuse of remand powers, and denial of fair investigation and liberty. The prayer in the petition was modified to include a challenge to the July 2 remand extension order as well.
Majithia’s counsel claimed the remand application lacked any urgent or specific investigative grounds, relying instead on general assertions such as his alleged influence, foreign ties, and vague references to digital evidence.
The plea also cited a March 4 Supreme Court order in which custodial interrogation was denied in a related 2021 drugs case, asserting that the same allegations had been rejected previously.
The current FIR stems from an investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the Punjab Police into the 2021 drugs case, based on a 2018 report by the anti-drug Special Task Force. Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act and had spent over five months in Patiala Jail before being granted bail by the High Court in August 2022.
