Chandigarh, June 15 (IANS) A court in Punjab’s Amritsar on Monday granted anticipatory bail to Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) leader Bikram Singh Majithia and two others in a case for storming into a police station and attempting to free a detainee.

Earlier, Majithia’s legal advisor Bikramjit Bath, also named in the first information report (FIR), was discharged after the Special Investigation Team (SIT) informed the court that he was not required in the case.

Bath had accompanied Majithia in his professional capacity as an advocate to obtain a copy of the FIR registered against Akali supporter Jobanpreet Singh.

Party spokesman Arshdeep Kler said the order once again exposed “trumped-up” cases allegedly pursued by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government to silence its opponents. He accused Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and police officers of “overstepping constitutional limits”.

Kler stated the Punjab and Haryana High Court had described the arrest of Jobanpreet Singh as unconstitutional. He said Majithia attended a sit-in protest led by Jobanpreet Singh’s family and the Kirti Kisan Union only to secure his release after Jobanpreet Singh was confined inside the station house officer’s room.

“This order has once again exposed the vendetta being carried out by the Punjab government, the police, and Chief Minister Mann,” Kler said.

According to police, Majithia and his supporters entered the police station and tried to forcibly secure Jobanpreet Singh’s release. The police alleged that Majithia snatched a sub-inspector’s mobile phone and tore official documents. Subsequently, a case was registered against the Akali Dal and others on charges of obstructing public servants and creating a disturbance at the police station. The police had been conducting raids to arrest him inthe case. The police also alleged that he and his associates brandished weapons and damaged case files inside the police station.

–IANS

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