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Lookout notice against Akali Dal leader Majithia in drugs case
The Centre on Wednesday issued a lookout notice against Shiromani Akali Dal MLA and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia a day after he was booked in a drugs case by the Punjab Police.
The Union home ministry on Wednesday issued a lookout circular (LOC) against Shiromani Akali Dal MLA and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia a day after he was booked in a drugs case by the Punjab Police .
The notice, which is issued to prevent and monitor the entry and exit of persons who may be wanted by different law enforcement agencies, was issued by the home ministry’s Bureau of Immigration on the request of the state police, which is trying to arrest the 46-year-old MLA, who was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act following a report submitted by a Harpreet Singh Sidhu, an additional director general of police and the chief of a special task force (STF) in 2018. The STF was formed by the Congress government in 2017 to look into drug cases.
The copy of the notice has been sent to the additional director general of police (ADGP), counter intelligence. “The lookout circular shall remain in force until and unless a deletion request is received by the Bureau of Immigration from the originator itself,” the notice, a copy of which HT has seen, said.
A lookout circular is a letter used by authorities to check if a travelling person is wanted by the police. If immigration officers of a country have a LOC, then the offender can be nabbed at the airport.
If the immigration officers of a country have LOC against any offender then the person can be nabbed at the airport.
A Special Investigating Team (SIT) constituted by Punjab DGP to look into the case raided various places in Chandigarh, Himachal and the national capital to arrest the former minister. The team comprises assistant inspector general Balraj Singh, deputy superintendent of police Kulwant Singh and DSP Rajesh Kumar.
According to a 49-page FIR registered at the State Crime Police Station in Mohali, Majithia has been booked for cognisable offences under Sections 25 (punishment for allowing premises etc. to be used for commission of an offence), 27(A) ( financing 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 NDPS Act. These sections have the provision of imprisonment up to 10 years along with a fine as decided by the court.
HT has seen a copy of the FIR.
“According to the findings of the STF report, prima facie there is sufficient evidence to further investigate the role of Majithia as regards the allegations made in application under scrutiny,” the FIR said. The STF chief’s report was prepared after the analysis of an investigation done by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) in the Jagdish Bhola drug case -- a drug network involving Arjuna award-winning wrestlerand dismissed deputy superintendent of police Jagdish Bhola that was busted by the Punjab Police in 2013.
The drug menace and efforts for its eradication have always remained at the centre of the political discourse in Punjab for the past one decade. Putting the big fish behind bars has been a major promise of the Congress government to voters.
In 2018, the STF chief was given the task of analysing the former Akali minister’s role on the directions of Punjab & Haryana high court. His report, based on the statements of drug case accused Jagjit Singh Chahal and Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh to the ED, are part of the FIR. On February 1, 2018, the STF had submitted its status report in the Punjab & Haryana high court, which later sought comments from the Punjab DGP and the home secretary. Since then, it was lying in a sealed cover in the court.
The FIR also mentioned the legal opinion of Punjab’s advocate general DS Patwalia, who strongly pushed for action on the STF chief’s report. “In my considered opinion which has been formed after having gone through the proceedings of the court, there is no impediment/embargo for the STF or any state agency to act upon the report submitted in the court. In fact, the court has made it categorically clear that law enforcement agencies must act upon the said reports in accordance with the law,” he said, according to the FIR.
Patwalia’s opinion is different from that of his predecessor, who advised against acting on the report without the consent of the high court.
Majithia is an influential member of the SAD, the brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, and held revenue, renewal energy and information and public relations portfolios in the Punjab government.
The process to register the case was initiated after DGP Sidharth Chattopadhyaya wrote to the director, Bureau of Investigation (BoI), on December 20, two days after taking charge as the officiating DGP of Punjab.
The FIR has been registered on the complaint of the station house officer (SHO), state crime police station, inspector Kailash Bahadur.
A special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted to investigate the case.
The move led to a political backlash from SAD, which accused that the ruling Congress of trying to settle political scores ahead of assembly elections scheduled for early next year.
“The Congress government changed two DGPs and three Bureau of Investigation (BOI) Directors to implement its vendetta. Eventually, it was a DGP who was not even eligible for empanelment as a regular DGP who was given charge to falsely book Majithia as a quid-pro-quo. The party will expose this false case both in the courts as well as publicly,” SAD chief Sukhbir Badal said in Sultanpur Lodhi of Kapurthala
“God’s justice can be delayed but not denied. We did struggle to give justice to those who ruined Punjab’s youth for years. At last, Waheguru ji has heard prayer of Punjab. Only God has the power to do justice, we have only become means,” state home minister Sukhjinder Randhawa tweeted, using the hashtag #majithiainprisonsoon.
