The Punjab and Haryana High Court on Wednesday granted bail to Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia in a drugs case, Bar and Bench reported.

A division bench of Justices MS Ramachandra Rao and Sureshwar Thakur pronounced the order.

On December 20, Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on allegations of being linked to a drug racket operating in Punjab.

He had moved the High Court for anticipatory bail after a Mohali court dismissed his plea on December 24.

The High Court had granted him interim protection till January 24. After the relief ended, the court cancelled the protection for Majithia, a former Punjab minister and brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal.

On January 31, he moved the Supreme Court, which granted him protection from arrest till February 23 in view of the Assembly polls. The former minister, who contested from the Amritsar East Assembly constituency, lost the seat.

A day after his interim bail ended, Majithia surrendered before a Mohali court on February 24. He is currently lodged in Patiala Jail.

In May, he had moved the Supreme Court seeking to quash the first information report against him. In his plea, Majithia had argued that the case against him was politically motivated. However, the court rejected his request.

“We are not inclined to entertain the petition under Article 32,” the Supreme Court had said. “We allow the petitioner to approach the High Court and we direct that the petition be heard by the High Court’s division bench only and not the single bench.”

Article 32 of the Constitution allows individuals to move the Supreme Court if their rights have been “unduly deprived”.