The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) hit back at the Congress government in Punjab after a case was registered against its MLA Bikram Singh Majithia, by calling the case 'fabricated'. The SAD MLA was booked under the relevant sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on the basis of a 2018 report into a drug racket operating in Punjab.
The anti-drug Special Task Force (STF) chief, Harpreet Singh Sidhu, filed this report in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018.
Akali Dal spokesperson Parambans Singh Romana said that the STF chief had admitted to being in relation with Majithia and was not on talking terms with his family for 15 years.
"Despite this, the fabricated FIR against Majithia relied on the report of Sidhu, which the latter himself admitted was an opinion and not a probe report.
"The officer has admitted that his report was based on the record of the Enforcement Directorate (ED). If that is so, the ED was competent to file a challan against Majithia if it had found anything incriminating against him. But it did not do so," Romana said in a statement, according to a PTI report.
Romana said that STF chief Sidhu was referring to the Jagdish Bhola case that had ended in January 2019. "Bhola and one Jagjit Chahal were convicted and the third accused, Bittu Aulakh, was acquitted," said the SAD leader.
Romana said that despite Aulakh being acquitted, he was named by the STF chief as someone who was "instrumental in making the accused meet Majithia."