Punjab Vigilance Bureau takes arrested Bikram Majithia to his office in Majitha

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Chandigarh, Jul 1 (PTI) The Punjab Vigilance Bureau took Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia to his office in Amritsar's Majitha on Tuesday in connection with a disproportionate assets case registered against the former minister.

A heavy police force was deployed near Majithia's office with barricades raised to prevent his party's supporters from reaching there. The vigilance bureau team remained for over an hour at the office.

His wife Ganieve Kaur, an Akali MLA from the Majitha seat, and her supporters were stopped from heading towards the office even before the vigilance bureau officials reached there.

She could be seen arguing with police officials, saying the vigilance bureau team could undertake a search operation in the office, but "I should be allowed to go".

"I want to sit in my office. I am the local MLA. I am not going to break any law," Kaur said and asked police officials for any written order that bars her from going to the office.

She lashed out at the AAP government, accusing it of targeting her husband for "exposing" its "failures".

A day earlier, the vigilance bureau took Majithia to Himachal Pradesh for verification of property allegedly linked to his family.

The Punjab Vigilance Bureau arrested Majithia, the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal, on June 25 over money laundering allegations involving Rs 540 crore of "drug money". He was sent to a seven-day vigilance bureau remand on June 26.

In the fresh FIR registered against Majithia, the vigilance bureau claimed that preliminary investigations have revealed that more than Rs 540 crore of "drug money" was laundered through several channels, allegedly facilitated by the Akali leader said.

The FIR stems from an ongoing probe 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. He 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. PTI CHS VSD NSD NSD