Jalalabad court sends Punjab Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira to two-day police remand for second time

PTI

Fazilka (Punjab), October 10

A court in Punjab’s Fazilka district on Tuesday sent Congress MLA Sukhpal Singh Khaira, who was arrested last month in connection with a 2015 drugs case, to a two-day police remand for second time after the police filed a revision petition.

The Bholath MLA was produced in the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class Jalalabad after he was brought from Nabha jail.

Khaira was arrested on September 28 from his Chandigarh residence by police and the court then sent him to two-day police remand.

Though the police had asked for further remand, the court had refused to extend the remand of Khaira and sent him to a 14-day judicial custody on September 30.

Police on Monday filed a revision petition in the court in the matter.

Khaira’s arrest came on the basis of an investigation conducted by a special investigation team led by Deputy Inspector General of Police Swapan Sharma in the 2015 drugs case.

The drugs case was registered in March 2015 at Jalalabad in Fazilka. Nine people, including Gurdev Singh, who was allegedly a close aide of Khaira, were booked in the case and later convicted under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.

The police had recovered 2 kg of heroin, 24 gold biscuits, one country-made pistol, a .315-bore pistol and two Pakistani SIM cards from them.

Khaira’s name cropped up later during the police probe.

However, in 2017, the Supreme Court stayed the trial court proceedings against Khaira who was summoned as an additional accused in the matter. He was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate in 2021 on the charge of money laundering linked to the 2015 drugs case. He was granted bail in 2022.

In February 2023, the apex court quashed the summoning order against Khaira in the case.

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