Apprehending a grave threat to the life of former minister Bikram Singh Majithia inside the jail, his wife and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MLA from Majitha Ganieve Kaur Majithia has written to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, Governor Banwari lal Purohit, and state DGP VK Bhawra demanding immediate removal of ADGP Harpreet Sidhu from the additional charge of ADGP Prisons besides taking other necessary action in the case.
The party alleged that there was a grave threat to Majithia’s life and there was every likelihood of him being implicated in another false case at the behest of AGDP Harpreet Sidhu who had been entrusted with the additional charge of ADGP, Prisons, “to settle political and personal scores”.
Senior SAD leaders — Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema, addressing the media to highlight Ganieve Majithia’s letter, said that there were grave apprehensions in the minds of Majithia’s family as well as that of the SAD that Harpreet Sidhu had been posted as ADGP Prisons with the motive of planting something on the former minister.
Pointing out that there was a severe animosity between the families of Majithia and Harpreet Sidhu, SAD leaders said that ADGP was closely related to the former Minister as the police officer’s mother and Majithia’s paternal aunt were real sisters. “There has been bad blood between the families for generations with Sidhu’s family blaming Majithia’s family for the death of their aunt. The animosity can be seen from the fact that Majithia’s grandfather had been shot by the security guard of Sidhu’s father while he was visiting the latter. This strained relationship and animosity was also withheld by Harpreet Sidhu from the High Court before he embarked upon conducting an inquiry on the alleged role of Majithia in a drug case,” they added.
SAD leader maintained that when the High Court did not proceed with Sidhu’s report, the latter “maliciously handed over the report which was supposed to lie in a sealed envelope to Navjot Singh Sidhu — a politician who was inimical to Majithia”.
“Towards the end of the term of the previous Congress government, Harpreet Sidhu handed over his home-cooked report to the DGP to register a false case under various sections of the NDPS Act against Majithia...Even after this, Sidhu kept interfering in the case and even wrote a letter to the AAP Government on March 8 on which basis the SIT was reconstituted. Due to this, Sidhu’s diktat is treated as a command by the SIT which reports directly to him,” they alleged.
The Akali leaders also alleged that Majithia was subjected to “inhuman conditions” in jail with the Jails Minister during his visit to the Patiala Central Jail directing the former minister be shifted to a Chakki which is unsafe and unfit for human habitation.
They said that the cell in which Majithia was currently lodged was 8x8 feet. “The sole purpose of shifting Majithia into the said cell is to humiliate him and violate his human rights,” they added.