Hours after a storm of controversy engulfed the Shiromani Akali Dal-led Punjab Government with its Minister Bikram Majithia’s name allegedly surfacing in the multi-crore drug racket once again, the State Revenue Minister on Monday accused “some people with vested interests” of raising the issue out of nothing.
Strongly denying the allegations as “baseless, nonsensical and with no substantial evidence”, Majithia maintained that “some people with vested interests are hell bent on tarnishing his image by dragging his name” in the matter.
“The so called clinching statements that were made by the accused are without any evidence to support them and are mere conjecture,” said Majithia.
Media reports had it that despite having strong evidences since past two months against the SAD leader, the Enforcement Directorate has not summoned Majithia. Majithia is the brother-in-law of SAD president and Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.
On the basis of the same, Punjab Congress questioned the ED’s strategy of playing a waiting game to summon Majithia, while reiterating its demand to hand over the inquiry to the central probe agency.
The party alleged that it was due to “some pressure” that ED is dragging its feet in summoning Majithia for the investigations. “What’s stopping ED from summoning Majithia when they have sufficient and strong evidence against him,” questioned the state Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa.
Hinting “pressure” by the higher ups, Bajwa alleged that Majithia has not been summoned till now as the Badal family has created a lot of pressure on the Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, under whom the ED comes, attributing his claims to the “information given by a senior BJP leader”.
Bajwa also demanded that Majithia should put in his papers as the state Revenue Minister on moral grounds after the exposé. “If he is not giving his resignation, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal should ask him to step down, the way former Cabinet Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur was asked to do the same following the alleged involvement of his son in the drug case,” said Bajwa.
Not satisfied with the ongoing probe by the Punjab police and the ED, Bajwa demanded that the investigations should be “transferred to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), or should be held under the sitting judge of the Supreme Court”.
Reacting upon the Congress demand for “independent probe”, Majithia said that he was also for a “flawless investigation, so that justice could be delivered”.
“This issue should be dealt with, without losing the ever important core issue of the fight against drugs by taking it to its logical end,” said Majithia.
With the Fatehgarh Sahib police busting `6,000 crore international drug racket with the arrest of an NRI Anoop Singh Kahlon by the Fatehgarh Sahib police in March 2013, it shook the State.
Further investigations in the matter led to the arrests of alleged kingpin and “dismissed” Punjab police DSP Jagdish Bhola, followed by Amritsar businessman Bittu Aulakh and pharmaceutical company head Jagjit Singh Chahal.
ED, that falls under the Union Finance Ministry, is currently interrogated all those involved in the matter. Phillaur’s son, Damanveer, and Chief Parliamentary Secretary Avinash Chander had also been questioned by the Directorate several times.
It has been reported that the investigations, so far, have revealed that Majithia knew Canada-based drug dealers - Satpreet Satta and Parbinder Singh, alias Pindi.
“With the drug racket having foreign links, ED cannot summon them and thus not fit to hold the inquiry in the matter. The matter should be given to the CBI which is a nodal agency...Earlier, they used to call in Congress bureau of investigation, but now it comes under their government,” said Bajwa.
Responding, Majithia said: “What is the allegationIJ That I knew Punjabi NRIsIJ Is that not my responsibilityIJ As a public figure, I met many people which is expected of a person in public life. My doors are always open for every Punjabi… I strongly deny having made any calls or having any involvement as accused by Bhola.”
Out rightly rejecting these allegations as “totally false and malicious”, Majithia said: “Whoever has made these allegations has done so with the intention of tarnishing my reputation.”
“I had met a number of NRIs including Canadian, UK and US politicians and people accompanying them, but how can I be held responsible for what they do in their personal or private life...A politician meets and gets photographed with a number of people on a regular basis as that is what his job entails, however that does not make the politician an accomplice in the individuals misdeeds,” argued Majithia.
“With the grace of the Almighty, my forefathers have a long history of serving the people of Punjab and India. Carrying forward this duty, I have never protected or supported any anti-national activity and the question of doing any favour for such people is unthinkable,” he said.