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Former Punjab minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia has been booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, triggering allegations of 'political vendetta' from his party.
A case against Majithia under various sections of the NDPS Act was registered on the basis of a 2018 status report of probe into the drug racket in the state.
The report was filed by anti-drug special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018.
Majithia is the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
The SAD dubbed the move as 'political vendetta'.
The 49-page first information report (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 FIR noted that the legal opinion of Punjab's advocate general too was taken before registering it.
'On the basis of this status report of the STF along with the opinion of the advocate general, a cognizable offence is made out and therefore a case be registered and investigated,' the FIR noted.
The FIR stated that the case shall be investigated by a special investigation team for which orders are being issued separately.
'All related aspects and evidence can be examined thoroughly and investigation completed expeditiously as per facts and law,' it further read.
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.
In this case, Majithia was also questioned by the ED in December 2014 when he was the minister in the Akali government.
'As per the findings, prima facie there is sufficient evidence on record to further investigate the role of Shri Bikram Singh Majithia as regards the allegations made in the application under scrutiny,' said the FIR.
Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi said the state government is committed to taking legal action against drug traffickers and delivering justice to Punjabis.
'Today the first step has been taken to give justice to all of them (victims of drug malady in the state) by registering an FIR against Bikram Singh Majithia in Crime Branch, Mohali on the basis of the report of the STF that was formed on the orders of the Punjab and Haryana high court,' Channi said in a tweet.
'This is a tough battle and I request all Punjabis to support me in this fight against drugs,' he said.
Talking to reporters in Muktsar, SAD patron Parkash Singh Badal said, "We already knew it."
He said the Congress government changed three state police chiefs to book and arrest Badals and Majithia.
"Take me wherever you want to, I am ready. Any government which indulges in this vendetta has to face the consequences," Badal, the five-time Punjab chief minister, said.
He said the job of the government is to serve people and not indulge in 'political vendetta'.
Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu welcomed the registration of the FIR against Majithia, claiming, in a series of tweets, that it was possible due to his over five-year-long fight with the 'corrupt system run by Badal Family & Captain and a delay of four years' due to inaction on the 'ED & STF report against Majithia'.
Terming the registration of the FIR a 'slap on the face of all those powerful who slept for years on issues at the heart of Punjab's soul', Sidhu said that he has been demanding it for the last four years.
The Punjab Congress chief has been pressing the Charanjit Singh Channi government to act on 'big fish' involved in the drug racket.
A few days ago, the Channi government had faced an embarrassment when the letter of Additional Director General of Police S K Asthana to the then state police chief Iqbal Preet Singh Sahota had surfaced on social media.
Asthana had cited some legal hurdles in conducting reinvestigation in drug cases against Majithia.
Replying to a question on registration of a case against Majithia, former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh said it will not stand the legal scrutiny as the government had not followed due process of law.
Singh asked on what basis the government had registered the case against him since the report on drug trafficking was still lying with the Punjab and Haryana high court in a sealed cover.
"After all there is a law in the country and I am sure it will not stand the legal scrutiny in the court of law," he said, while adding 'just because you do not like someone, you cannot put him behind bars'.