The Ministry of Home Affairs has issued a lookout circular against Shiromani Akali Dal leader and NDPS-accused Bikram Singh Majithia after he was booked by the Punjab Police on Tuesday in the Punjab drugs case. The lookout circular was issued after the Punjab Police requested the bureau of immigration of the MHA for the same. It has been issued to prevent him from fleeing abroad.
Majithia, (46), is the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal. Majithia had earlier denied all charges against him. It is learnt that the police are looking for Majithia to arrest him. A special investigation team led by Deputy Inspector General (Crime) has also been formed in this regard.
According to the FIR, registered under sections 25, 27a and 29 of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985, Bikram Singh Majithia misused government vehicles, security and official machinery to facilitate the smuggling of synthetic drugs. The 49-page FIR was registered by the state crime branch at its Mohali police station under various sections of the NDPS Act. The sections include 25 (punishment for allowing one’s premises for its use for the commission of an offence), 27 A (for financing sale, purchase, production, manufacture, possession, transportation, use or consumption, import and export or any act pertaining to narcotics) and 29 (for abetting or plotting an offence).
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 (ED). In this case, Majithia was also questioned by the ED in December 2014 when he was the minister in the Akali government.
The political slugfest over the case has intensified over the past few weeks with SAD accusing the Punjab government of trying to frame party president Sukhbir Singh Badal and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia in the drugs case. AAP leader Raghav Chadha, meanwhile, accused Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi of striking a secret deal with Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal to save Bikram Majithia.
