AAP Attacks Punjab Govt Over Bikram Majithia’s Arrest, Alleges CM Channi ‘Entered Into Deal With Badals’

Bikram Singh Majithia was booked under the NDPS Act on the basis of a 2018 report of investigation into a drug racket in the state.

New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party on Sunday attacked the Charanjit Channi-led Punjab government demanding the arrest of Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former Punjab minister Bikram Singh Majithia.

AAP’s Punjab affairs co-in-charge Raghav Chadha claimed that the “compromised FIR” against the Akali Dal leader in connection with the investigation into a drug racket was “an election stunt” ahead of the upcoming Punjab assembly election.

Speaking to news agency ANI, AAP leader Raghav Chadha said: “Bikram Singh Majithia has not been arrested even after rejection of his anticipatory bail. Compromised FIR was filed by the Punjab CM as an election stunt, concerning the upcoming polls”. 

“Channi is a compromised CM. He has entered into a deal with the Badals,” he further alleged.

The attack comes as the Youth Akali Dal, youth wing of Shiromani Akali Dal, shared Bikram Singh Majithia’s photos on its official Facebook page on Saturday. The post, which showed the Akali Dal leader at the Golden Temple complex in Amritsar, did not mention when the photos were clicked.

The pictures went viral on social media at a time when the Punjab Police has been conducting raids to arrest the former Punjab minister.

Addressing the media in Chandigarh, Raghav Chadha stated that nearly two weeks have passed since the registration of FIR against the Akali leader but he has not been arrested yet.

“It has been happening for the first time in the history of the country that an accused, whose anticipatory bail had been rejected, could not be arrested,” he added, as reported by news agency PTI.

The accused (Majithia) has been roaming around openly, alleged the AAP leader.

About Bikram Majithia’s photos, Raghav Chadha alleged: “Despite CCTV cameras installed in and around the Golden Temple and the presence of the task force of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, police could not nab him”.

The Channi government will neither arrest nor want to arrest Majithia as there is a setting between the government and the Badals, he claimed.

The AAP leader further claimed that Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi had given directions to police not to arrest Majithia.

Bikram Singh Majithia’s Anticipatory Bail Plea

In December, a Mohali court dismissed the anticipatory bail plea by Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia. The former Punjab minister had moved the court after being booked in a drug case. Along with the case, a lookout circular was also issued against him.

Bikram Singh Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on the basis of a 2018 report of investigation into a drug racket in the state.

The 49-page FIR was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.

The Shiromani Akali Dal leader is the brother-in-law of party chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister of state Harsimrat Kaur Badal. 

SAD patriarch Parkash Singh Badal had earlier denied all charges, terming the registration of the FIR as “political vendetta”.

“To target the applicant/petitioner is one of the major election planks of the current government. To fulfil its election stunt, the Congress government of the State of Punjab has been day and night browbeating officers to register false cases against the senior leadership of the Shiromani Akali Dal, including the applicant/petitioner,” PTI quoted the bail plea as submitting.

However, the court maintained that the question of legality of the FIR cannot be a ground for the grant of anticipatory bail.

The FIR has been registered on the basis of report which prima facie “shows the involvement of the applicant in the drug trade” and “harbouring” of the accused involved in it, the court had noted.

It further stated that “all these facts and financial transactions and extent of complicity of the applicant needs to be thoroughly investigated, which can be done only under custodial interrogation of the applicant and not under the protection of anticipatory bail”.

(With Inputs From Agencies)