Patiala court begins proceedings to declare Bains proclaimed offender

PATIALA: A Patiala court has initiated proceedings to declare Lok Insaaf Party (LIP) president and former MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains a proclaimed offender (PO) in a defamation case.

Bains has failed to appear before the court even as nonbailable warrants were issued against him repeatedly in a case filed by former cabinet minister Brahm Mohindra.

The court of judicial magistrate Monica Sharma has also asked Preetinder Singh, who has furnished surety of Bains for bail, to deposit ₹30,000 in the court, as he failed to ensure presence of the accused in the case.

Bains has already been declared a proclaimed offender in an alleged rape case. The PO declaration order was issued by a Ludhiana court on April 12, while the alleged rape case was registered in July 2021. Last week, the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed Bains’ plea seeking to quash order of PO against him in the rape case and also rejected his anticipatory bail plea. The defamation case was filed by Mohindra against Bains on August 1, 2018. After recording Mohindra’s statement, the court of judicial magistrate had issued summons to Bains.

During a press conference in 2018, Bains had accused Mohindra, then the state health minister, of a scam in the purchase of medicines. Bains also claimed that Mohindra owned a pharmaceutical company.

In July 2018, Bains wrote to then Punjab CM Captain Amarinder Singh and then Congress president Rahul Gandhi demanding Mohindra’s removal from the cabinet and a CBI probe against him. He had alleged that Mohindra was pressing drug de-addiction centres to purchase a medicine at exorbitant rates.