Chandigarh: Last week, senior Akali leader Bikram Singh Majithia was arrested in a case of disproportionate assets and sent to seven-day custody of the Vigilance Bureau (VB) in Punjab. The former revenue minister will be produced in the court on 2 July.
While Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann said that there is “irrefutable evidence” against Majithia, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader has denied all charges. The opposition has unitedly backed Majithia labelling the move as a “vendetta” of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP).
In the meanwhile, Siddharth Chattopadhyaya, a former DGP on whose recommendation a case was lodged against Majithia under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2021, Niranjan Singh, a former deputy director of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) who “probed” Majithia for over five years, Majithia’s former PA Talbir Singh who is now with the AAP, and Amarpal Singh alias Bonny Ajnala, a former SAD MLA who is now with the BJP, reached the VB office to depose against Majithia.
On Friday, SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal said those rushing to record statements were “disgruntled men” with a long standing history of enmity with the Akalis. “The AAP is orchestrating the depositions after having failed to find anything substantive against Majithia.”
Since 2013, allegations of Majithia’s involvement in the drug trade have dominated the political narrative in Punjab. Beginning with the murmurs of his role in the infamous Bhola drug case of November 2013 to a fresh case registered by the AAP government Wednesday, the past has continued to haunt Majithia for 12 years in an unbroken chain of connected events.
The latest case was registered under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA) for allegedly amassing illicit wealth beyond known sources of income. While a government statement said that the illicit wealth was “drug money”, these words didn’t find a mention in the FIR registered against Majithia.
The FIR, accessed by ThePrint, is based on a letter written to the VB by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the NDPS case registered in December 2021.
The 2021 case was registered against Majithia during the Congress years on the basis of a report submitted by the Special Task Force (STF) in 2018. The STF report, in turn, was based on a set of statements made by Arjuna awardee wrestler and former cop Jagdish Bhola in 2013 whose Rs 6,000 crore drug empire was unearthed when the SAD-BJP was in power.
Bhola, convicted in the drug cases in 2018 and sentenced to 24 years, walked out from jail earlier this month after he was granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana High Court.
Akalis’ self goal
It all began on 3 March, 2013, when Canadian national and alleged drugs smuggler Anoop Kahlon was arrested along with five others with 26 kg of heroin from Zirakpur.
Olympic bronze medalist boxer Vijender Singh and his sparring partner Ram Singh’s name cropped up during Kahlon’s questioning, and the case made national headlines.
A spate of arrests and more drug recoveries followed in what was presented by the police as the uncovering of a Rs 6,000 crore drug network with links to drug lords in Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.
The Punjab Police, then under Sukhbir as home minister, arrested more than 75 suspects in cases registered at Mohali, Patiala, and Fatehgarh Sahib. The ED also started a parallel investigation to unearth if the proceeds of the crimes involved money laundering.
Jagdish Bhola, who was identified as the kingpin of the multi crore drug cartel, was arrested from Haryana on 12 November, 2013 after a nine-month cat and mouse chase. By then, six cases under the NDPS Act had been registered against him.
Based on his interrogation, Jagjit Singh Chahal and Manjinder Singh Bittu Aulakh— Akali leaders who were said to be supplying chemicals to Bhola to manufacture the synthetic drug Ice—were arrested.
Aulakh was then the general secretary of the Youth Akali Dal, which was headed by Majithia. It was widely known that the two were at loggerheads because Aulakh was considered close to former Akali MLA Amarpal Singh alias Bonny Ajnala, a friend-turned-foe of Majithia.
On Saturday, Ajnala reached the VB office to “give information” against Majithia. Two days later, Chahal and Aulakh recorded their statements. The duo was convicted by an ED court in 2021 in the Bhola drug case. Earlier, in 2018, Chahal was convicted in the police case while Aulakh was discharged.
“I was the home minister in 2013. My police busted the whole network and arrested Bhola and the others. We busted the multi-crore racket and the accused found a way of getting back at the Akali leadership by naming Majithia. It is like a terrorist getting arrested in J&K and saying he has been sent by Home Minister Amit Shah. Will you believe him?” Sukhbir said in his press conference Friday.
Bhola drags Majithia
Within days of Chahal and Aulakh’s arrest in November 2013, Bhola named Majithia in the drug case he was arrested for. In a hurried statement to the media outside the court, he demanded a CBI probe so that the “entire truth” could be unraveled.
The Congress and the AAP launched a full blown attack on Majithia, who denied all charges and asserted he was prepared for “any probe” even as Sukhbir vociferously defended his brother-in-law.
“If Bhola says that Rahul Gandhi is involved in the drug trade, will the Congress demand a probe even then? The statement of an accused flung like this cannot be taken seriously,” Sukhbir had shot back at that time.
Amid the raging controversy, human rights advocacy group Lawyers for Human Rights International (LFHRI) moved the HC demanding a thorough investigation into Bhola’s allegations. Opposition leaders Partap Singh Bajwa, Jagmeet Singh Brar and Simranjeet Singh Mann also moved applications demanding the probe be shifted to the CBI.
However, the HC did not shift the investigation to the CBI and the main probe remained with the Punjab Police.
In their statements to the ED, Bhola, Aulakh and Chahal levelled allegations against Majithia—that the Akali leader had links with Canada-based alleged drug smugglers Satpreet Singh Satta, Amarinder Singh Laddi, and Parminder Singh Pindi.
Majithia smelled “a political conspiracy” in the manner the trio named him before the ED. He alleged that Aulakh was close to Congress leaders, adding that the move was to harm him politically.
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ED probes Majithia
In December 2013 on the basis of the trio’s statements, Majithia was questioned by an ED team including Niranjan Singh. However, when ED submitted its prosecution complaint against Bhola in February 2014, there was no mention of Majithia. This pattern repeated in the subsequent ED charge sheets including those against Aulakh and Chahal and their families, as well as in the multiple challans filed by the Punjab Police in the courts in the various cases.
In January 2015, Niranjan Singh was transferred by the finance ministry to Kolkata. An upset Niranjan moved the HC alleging that it was because of Majithia’s “pressure” that he was transferred. Interestingly, Bhola’s father also moved the court objecting to Niranjan’s transfer.
Staying the transfer order, the HC asked Niranjan to share the outcome of the year-long probe against Majithia. Niranjan submitted a “note” to the court in a sealed cover in May 2015.
On Saturday, Niranjan reached the VB office to depose against Majithia. “The note I gave to the high court was the key document that led to the registration of the case against Majithia in 2021. For most part of my investigation in the case, I was not allowed to work independently,” the former ED deputy director told media persons.
Rubbishing Niranjan’s claims, Akali leader Parambans Singh Bunty Romana told ThePrint that Niranjan was close to former DGP Chattopadhyay, who had a long standing feud with the Akali leadership and wanted to “fix” Majithia.
“I don’t understand why they made the effort to come to the VB on two separate days when everyone knows that they are together,” he said. “Moreover, he has already told the ED court in 2018 that his investigation in the Bhola drug case is complete. So, why does he keep coming back to give statements? It is clear that he is being motivated to do so. How can he say he was not allowed to act independently when he had the protection of the High court which had stayed his transfer?”
In October 2015, the HC constituted a three-member SIT to take a relook at the various FIRs lodged in the drug cases and remove any gaps in investigation. It submitted its report after meeting all the accused including Bhola, but Majithia was not arrayed as an accused in the report.
Majithia hits back
In April 2016, AAP leaders Ashish Khetan and Sanjay Singh sounded the poll bugle in Punjab, releasing to the media the written statements given by Bhola, Aulakh and Chahal against Majithia to the ED.
A month later, Majithia filed a defamation case against them and the then Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. In 2018, Kejriwal and Khetan apologised to the court for their statements. Singh however, refused to apologise and the case against him is still continuing in Amritsar.
After the elections in Punjab, the Congress came to power under Amarinder Singh in March 2017. A STF to curb drugs was constituted headed by IPS officer Harpreet Sidhu. In November, the probe into the allegations against Majithia was pushed afresh in the HC by the LFHRI, which wanted that the newly constituted STF be tasked with probing Majithia’s role. The court ordered that Niranjan’s note on Majithia be shared with the STF.
Harpreet Sidhu submitted a 34-page report in February 2018 in a sealed cover. The court asked the Punjab government and the ED to peruse the report and suggest further action. While the ED submitted its response in March, the Punjab government constituted a high-powered panel which submitted its response in May. Both responses were kept in a sealed cover by the court.
In March 2018, Congress minister Navjot Singh Sidhu released the STF’s report to the press demanding action. Sidhu alleged that the STF had found “sufficient prima facie evidence” to probe Majithia’s role in the drugs trade.
According to the STF’s report, Majithia, Chahal and Aulakh were closely associated with Satta, Pindi and Laddi in Canada and that Bhola was involved in the drug trade with these persons.
The STF added that Majithia also facilitated supply of precursor chemicals to Satta and Pindi. It suggested that Majithia’s money transactions with Chahal and others be investigated further to assess if funds had been transferred or received from abroad.
Majithia had denied the charges leveled by Navjot Sidhu, alleging that Harpreet Sidhu was related to him and that the IPS officer was settling a personal score with him.
NDPS FIR
In February 2019, Bhola, Kahlon and Chahal were convicted by a Mohali court while Aulakh was discharged in the police cases against them.
For three years, Navjot Sidhu pressed Amarinder Singh for the registration of a case against Majithia based on the STF report. After Charanjit Singh Channi replaced Amarinder as the CM, Chattopadhyay was made the Punjab DGP in December 2021.
Within days, he ordered an FIR be registered against Majithia under the NDPS Act based on the findings of the STF report. The FIR was registered on 21 December, 2022. Niranjan and Harpreet Sidhu recorded statements to the police the next day.
Majithia evaded arrest but his bail pleas were dismissed by various courts. The Supreme Court, while rejecting his bail plea, granted him protection from arrest till 23 February, 2022 to allow him to participate in the elections. In March that year, the SAD leader lost from Amritsar East, but his wife Ganieve Kaur won from his home seat of Majitha.
Majithia surrendered before the trial court 24 February and was sent to judicial custody. In August 2022 while granting Majithia regular bail, a division bench of the HC questioned the veracity of the case registered against Majithia. It pointed out that the police depended largely on statements of the accused to build a case against Majithia, but not gathered any substantive evidence.
“We may point out that there is no material placed on record showing possession, transportation, storing by or recovery of any contraband from the petitioner. All recoveries in the concluded trials have been affected from specific individuals and petitioner was not shown therein to have any role in that regard,” reads the bail order.
“There is no material to show that the petitioner supplied any chemicals much less contraband to Canada-based accused such as Satpreet Singh alias Satta or Parminder Singh alias Pindi with reference to time, place and quantity.”
That year, the Punjab government moved the SC against the HC order granting bail to Majithia. The plea was dismissed last month.
Majithia’s advocate Damanbir Sobti told mediapersons Monday that the entire set of allegations levelled by the VB in the new case were submitted in the Supreme Court by the NDPS case SIT when the bail plea was being heard. The SIT wanted Majithia’s custodial interrogation. “The Supreme Court rejected the averments made by the SIT and granted bail. Now the rejected submissions have been turned into a new FIR,” said Sobti.
While out on bail, Majithia and his staff members have been summoned multiple times by the SIT probing the FIR. The SIT members, too, have changed several times since the registration of the case in December 2021.
“The SIT has changed five times. This is because officers are unable to find anything substantial in the FIR. The HC bail order has clearly said that there has to be evidence beyond the statements of the accused. This is also the reason that SIT after SIT has also not been able to file a challan in the court in the FIR,” Romana said.
“Now in the VB case also, the police are calling upon the same persons whose statements have already been recorded in earlier cases. The investigation is nothing but a sham and a shame on the VB,” the Akali leader said.
(Edited by Tony Rai)
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