Hindustan Times (Chandigarh)

Majithia implicated my friend to deny ticket to father: Ex-akali MLA in affidavit

AKALIS VS AKALIS Panel probing political vendetta cases says matter beyond its jurisdicti­on as ED probing it

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the affidavit.

Justice Gill confirmed receiving the affidavit attached to a complaint sent by Aulakh from the Nabha jail through post.

“The file number of the case is 1,213 but we have sent a report to the state home department that it is beyond our jurisdicti­on as the matter is being investigat­ed by the Enforcemen­t Directorat­e (ED), a central agency,” he said.

The affidavit claims that Aulakh was arrested by the Amritsar police on November 14, 2013, from his residence at Rani Ka Bagh in Amritsar.

“I called up the then Amritsar commission­er of police who said he had instructio­ns from Chandigarh to bring my friend to Patiala. I then called up then Patiala SSP Hardayal Singh Mann who said Bittu had to be questioned regarding his relationsh­ip with Jagjit Singh Chahal. I was surprised when I heard the news that Bittu was arrested from Rajpura with 2 kg of Pseudoephe­drine (a key ingredient in synthetic drugs),” it adds.

Chahal, an Amritsar-based businessma­n, is a co-accused in the Bhola case along with Aulakh and both are presently lodged in the Nabha jail.

Justice Gill says about 10% of 4,200 complaints received by the panel are “Akalis versus Akalis”.

RECKLESS AND AMUSING: MAJITHIA Majithia, when contacted, called the statement “reckless and amusing”.

Questionin­g why the affidavit was filed by Bonny five years after Bittu’s arrest, he said, “The entire matter (Bhola case) has gone to the double-bench of the Punjab and Haryana high court. Many such affidavits have been filed before it. I was summond by the ED as a witness, not accused. The commission is politicall­ymotivated and not above the HC. And you need to ask the police if they implicated people at my behest and former CM (Parkash Singh Badal) if tickets were given at my behest. Bonny was renominate­d from his seat in the 2017 elections. So, how can he claim vendetta,” Majithia said. Bonny did not respond to calls and messages from HT since Saturday.

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