Punjab: SAD leader Majithia taken to Himachal in DA case, say sources

Chandigarh: The Punjab Vigilance Bureau Monday took Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia to Himachal Pradesh in connection with a disproportionate assets (DA) case registered against the former minister, said sources.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau on June 25 arrested Majithia in a disproportionate assets case allegedly involving laundering of Rs 540 crore of "drug money".

Majithia, who is the brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, is learnt to have been taken to Mashobra in Himachal Pradesh for verification of property allegedly linked to his family.

Though Majithia does not own any property in Himachal, his wife Ganieve Kaur Majithia, an Akali MLA, owns a residential property in the hill state, according to an election affidavit.

Following his arrest, Majithia was sent to a seven-day vigilance remand on June 26. He will be produced before a Mohali court on July 2.

Majithia's two former acquaintances Jagdish Singh Chahal and Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh on Monday got their statements recorded with the Punjab Vigilance Bureau, which is probing the DA case against Majithia.

Speaking to reporters outside the Vigilance Bureau office in Mohali, Aulakh said they answered whatever questions were asked by the officials.

"It is a DA case. Whatever they asked us we replied to them to the best of our knowledge. They wanted to ascertain if there were any financial transactions with us or had any benami property," said Aulakh.

"The main issue is drugs. We told them that when this issue came up in 2013 and if at that time, had the police conducted a proper investigation, things would have been different," said Aulakh.

Chahal said they have high hopes that the Punjab Vigilance Bureau will reach the logical conclusion.

"Earlier, several special investigation teams had been formed and they had called us many times but nothing was done. Only politics took place," he said.

Both Aulakh and Chahal had faced charges in the Bhola drug racket case.

In the past few days, the Vigilance Bureau has recorded the statements of former deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) Niranjan Singh regarding a probe he conducted into the Bhola drug money laundering case.

Singh had even summoned and questioned Majithia in the matter in 2014.

Former Punjab DGP Siddharth Chattopadhyaya on Friday met a team of the Vigilance Bureau and shared his "experience and knowledge" with it regarding the drug case registered against Majithia in 2021.

On Sunday, former Akali MLA Amarpal Singh Bonny also recorded his statement with the bureau against Majithia.

In the fresh FIR registered against Majithia, the bureau claimed preliminary investigations revealed that more than Rs 540 crore of "drug money" has been laundered through several ways and it was allegedly facilitated by Majithia.

This FIR against Majithia stems from an ongoing investigation being conducted by a Punjab Police special investigation team into the 2021 drug case. In 2021, Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The action was taken on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force.

Majithia spent more than five months in Patiala jail and walked out of prison in August 2022 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail.