Patiala, Feb 3 (PTI) Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Tuesday walked out of the New Nabha jail here and alleged that the government did not want him to come out of prison alive.
The Akali leader, who spent seven months in jail after his arrest in a disproportionate assets case last June linked to the alleged laundering of Rs 540 crore of drug money, was granted bail by the Supreme Court on Monday.
After he came out of the jail at around 2.15 pm, he twirled his moustache in his signature style, which led to sloganeering by his supporters in his favour and also said, “Tiger abhi zinda hai”.
His supporters showered flower petals over him and honoured him with ‘Sirpoas’ (robe of honour).
Sitting atop a car, he thanked the Almighty.
Earlier in the day, Majithia’s counsel H S Dhanoa said the state of Punjab filed an application in a court in Mohali, seeking stringent bail conditions for the Akali leader.
Among them was the recommendation that Majithia should be barred from entering Punjab and should be restrained from making statements on social media regarding the case.
Dhanoa said the court, however, declined these requests.
Speaking to the media after coming out of jail, Majithia also thanked his supporters with folded hands.
“I came out because of your prayers and blessings,” Majithia said.
He claimed, “Today I came out, otherwise if the government had its way. It wanted me not come out alive (from the jail).” “If (chief minister) Bhagwant Mann has his way, like singer Sidhu Moosewala was killed, he could get me killed as well by compromising my security,” he alleged.
“I want to tell Mann, neither Majithia stops, nor bends and will continue to raise issues of the people of Punjab”, he said.
On Radha Soami Satsang Beas head Gurinder Singh Dhillon’s visit to the jail, Majithia said he met him and said, “his ‘jaadu di jhappi’ cannot be explained in words.” Majithia alleged that the security of Dhillon was compromised on Monday when he visited the jail to meet him.
Dhillon’s security was stopped outside, he alleged.
Majithia also claimed that a total of 32 cameras were installed in the jail, only to see him.
He alleged that his meetings with his relatives were not allowed, despite the fact that there was a provision for two meetings a week.
Majithia also thanked BJP leaders Sunil Jakhar, Amarinder Singh, Tarun Chugh, his party chief Sukhbir Badal, sister Harsimrat Kaur Badal and Congress MLA Sukhpal Khaira for standing by him.
Majithia is the brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.
Later, he visited the gurdwara Dukhniwaran and paid obeisance.
Earlier, the Akali leader’s wife, Ganieve Kaur, thanked God and the Supreme Court.
“This is the victory of truth. The government had forgotten that there is God above,” she told reporters.
Outside his residence in Amritsar, Majithia’s supporters gathered, distributed sweets and danced to the beats of a ‘dhol’.
A top court bench of Justices Vikram Nath and Sandeep Mehta on Monday passed the order granting bail to Majithia, while hearing his plea challenging a Punjab and Haryana High Court order of December 4, which denied him bail in the case.
The bench noted that Majithia was earlier granted bail in a separate case registered under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act, 1985.
On August 22 last year, the Vigilance Bureau filed a chargesheet in a Mohali court, which ran into more than 40,000 pages.
In its FIR registered against Majithia, the Vigilance Bureau claimed that preliminary investigations revealed that more than Rs 540 crore of drug money had been laundered through several channels, allegedly facilitated by Majithia.
The FIR against Majithia stemmed from an ongoing investigation by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Punjab Police into a 2021 drug case.
In 2021, Majithia was booked under the NDPS Act, based on a 2018 report of the anti-drug SIT. The Akali leader spent more than five months in a Patiala jail before walking out in August 2022 after the high court granted him bail. PTI CHS VSD APL APL
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