Majithia booked under NDPS Act
Committed to act against traffickers, says Channi; SAD alleges vendetta
Chandigarh, Dec. 21: Former Punjab minister and senior SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia has been booked under the NDPS Act, triggering allegations of “political vendetta” from his party.
A case against Mr Majithia under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act was registered on the basis of a 2018 status report of probe into the drug racket in the state. The report was filed by anti-drug special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu in the Punjab and Haryana high court in 2018.
Mr Majithia is the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister
Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The SAD dubbed the move as “political vendetta”.
The 49-page FIR was registered by the state crime branch at its Mohali police station under various sections of the NDPS Act.
The FIR noted that the legal opinion of Punjab’s advocate general too was taken before registering it. “On the basis of this status report of the STF along with the opinion of the advocate general, a cognizable offence is made out and therefore a case be registered and investigated,” the FIR noted.
The STF report pending with the high court was based on confessional statements given by some accused, including Jagjit
Singh Chahal, Jagdish Singh Bhola and Maninder Singh Aulakh, of the 2013 multi-crore drug racket case, given to the Enforcement Directorate.
In this case, Majithia was also questioned by the ED in December 2014 when he was the minister in the Akali government.
Punjab chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi said the state government is committed to taking legal action against drug traffickers and delivering justice to Punjabis.
“Today the first step has been taken to give justice to all of them (victims of drug malady in the state) by registering an FIR against Bikram Singh Majithia in Crime Branch, Mohali on the basis of the report of the STF that was formed on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana High Court,” Mr Channi said in a tweet.
Talking to reporters in Muktsar, SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal said, “We already knew it.”
He said the Congress government changed three state police chiefs to book and arrest Badals and Majithia.