Will decide Majithia’s status after questioning: ED

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 24

Has the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia as a "witness" in the multi-core drug syndicate case, as claimed by the minister in the Assembly today? 

Directorate officials say his "status",  as an accused or a witness, will be decided only after questioning on December 26. 

They cite a "standard laid-out procedure". Inquiry officers have booklets for issuing summons with serial numbers. The officer concerned simply fills in name and the unique Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR) number and dispatches it. 

The printed format mentions whether a person has been summoned under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PEMA) or Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA). 

It is only after the inquiry officer has examined facts/records submitted by the summoned person that the ED decides whether it all will be of any use. The crucial steps to be decided are whether the person should be called a witness or his involvement warrants attachment of his property and filing of a challan against him in ED's special court. 

With no examination done so far, the officials are not clear about the "status" of the minister in the case.

The ED, which has already interrogated former Jails Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur, his son Damanvir Singh Phillaur, CPS Avinash Chander and Jalandhar Congress MP Chaudhary Santokh Singh in the case, may even summon them back for cross-examination after Majithia's interrogation. 

Investigating officers have so far received statements of all persons in their handwriting, sources said.

Meanwhile, the ED has moved an application in a Patiala court seeking custodial interrogation of the three accused in the same case in a lock-up in its Jalandhar office at from January 1. 

They are Fatehgarh Sahib-based Sukhjit Singh alias Sukha, lodged in maxithe Nabha jail, alleged smuggler Varinder Singh alias Raja, lodged in the Central Jail, Patiala, and SAD leader Bittu Aulakh, lodged in New Jail Nabha. 

The three have been interrogated by the inquiry officer. But the ED has pleaded that it be given their custody for four or five days.

The minister, sources said, would be questioned on his passport details, foreign visits, bank account details of his firms and properties since 2007-08, monetary deals and meetings with the accused in the racket, including  Aulakh and Canadian NRIs Satpreet Singh alias Satta and Parminder Singh Pindi.