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Akali MLA and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia booked in drug case
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu, an arch rival of former revenue minister, takes to Twitter to announce FIR against “main culprits” of drug trade on basis of February 2018 special task force report
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Punjab Police booked former Shiromani Akali Dal minister Bikram Singh Majithia on Monday night under various sections of the NDPS Act on the basis of a report submitted by Special Task Force (STF) chief and ADGP Harpreet Singh Sidhu.
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According to the 49-page fresh FIR registered in the Punjab State Crime Police Station in Mohali, Majithia has been booked under Sections 25 (Punishment for allowing premises, etc., to be used for commission of an offence), 27 (A) ( whoever is financing any activities indulging in production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transportation, use or consumption, import and export or deal in any activities pertaining to narcotic drugs) and 29 (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act.
The FIR has been registered on the complaint of the station house officer (SHO), state crime police station, inspector Kailash Bahadur.
The FIR states that as per the directions of the DGP Punjab, a Special Investigation Team (SIT) is being constituted to investigate the case. “As per the findings of the STF report, prima facie there is sufficient evidence to record to further investigate the role of Majithia as regards the allegations made in application under scrutiny,” reads the FIR that has taken base of STF chief’s report prepared on the basis of analysis of investigation of Enforcement Directorate (ED) done into Bhola drug case.
The entire probe of the STF prepared on the basis of statements of accused in the drug case, Jagjit Singh Chahal and Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh, to the ED has been made part of the FIR.
The content of the FIR revealed that legal opinion of advocate general DS Patwalia was also taken on the STF report.
Though senior police officials were mum on the issue, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu tweeted: “After 5.5 years of fight against the corrupt system run by the Badal Family & Captain and delay of 4 years without action taken on ED & STF reports against Majithia. Finally now, after pushing for credible officers in positions of power and influence first step has been taken!”
Sidhu, 58, is an arch political opponent of Majithia, 45, who is a three-time SAD MLA from Majitha constituency in the border district of Amritsar. “An FIR has been registered in Punjab Police Crime Branch against the main culprits of the drug trade on the basis of a February 2018 STF report wherein I demanded this four years ago. It is a slap on the face of all those powerful who slept for years on issues at the heart of Punjab’s soul,” Sidhu shared on social media. “Justice will not be served until main culprits behind drug mafia are given exemplary punishment; this is merely a first step. Will fight till punishment is given which acts as deterrent for generations. We must choose honest and righteous and shun drug traffickers and their protectors,” he added.
Badal Senior alleges political vendetta
Shiromani Akali Dal patriarch and former five-time chief minister Parkash Singh Badal termed the police action on expected lines, saying the Congress government had changed three DGPs just to book his family members, including Majithia. Majithia is the brother of his daughter-in-law and Bathinda SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
“I want to tell this (Congress) government that book me also and take me along wherever you want to. I was booked 100 times and even my wife was not spared. This is nothing but political vendetta,” Badal said on the sidelines of a political gathering in Muktsar.
Twists and turns in case against Majithia
The Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government’s efforts to book Majithia in the drug case ahead of the Punjab assembly elections has seen several twists and turns. Last Monday, a letter purportedly written by the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) chief AS Asthana surfaced on social media in which he said he was against booking Majithia on the basis of a 2018 special task force (STF) report lying in a sealed cover with the Punjab and Haryana high court. The four-page letter dated December 11 was addressed to then director general of police (DGP) Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota and found its way to social media from an anonymous foreign number.
Senior police officials, privy to the development, confirmed that the pages were part of Asthana’s confidential note to his boss in which he sought more legal scrutiny of the facts before registering an FIR as follow-up to a 2018 report STF head Harpreet Singh Sidhu that was submitted to the high court.
Pressure from Punjab Congress chief Sidhu
The Channi government has of late been under mounting pressure from state Congress chief Sidhu to act on the STF report on alleged complicity of certain political leaders and police officials in the drug racket.
In his letter, Asthana said that a perusal of the high court orders shows that certain statements were recorded by the Enforcement Directorate of accused in the Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) case, namely Jagdish Bhola, Chahal and Aulakh.
The high court had entrusted the ED report to STF head Sidhu with a direction to examine the same. “Therefore, the report prepared and submitted by the STF chief was essentially for the assistance and benefit of the high court. It was not a report made in course of investigation in NDPS cases in the exercise of the STF in the usual course of action,” the letter read.
He added that the record suggest that this report was, on one hand handed over to the ED and on the other, it was handed over to the advocate general, Punjab, for consideration and hence, the state government, under the high court orders, constituted a committee of the Punjab DGP and additional chief secretary (Home) to examine it.
Curiously, Asthana wrote the letter to the DGP before availing two-day medical leave that ended on Sunday and the same evening he was admitted in a Mohali hospital amid reports of pressure mounting on him to give a nod to take action against Majithia.
Majithia has already moved high court
Meanwhile, Majithia has approached the Punjab and Haryana high court, pleading that he be made party in the Jagdish Bhola drug racket case as his image was being tarnished by his political opponents.
