Now, 5th SIT to hold investigation against Majithia in drugs case

Drawing a flak for little headway in the investigation into the drugs case against former Akali minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the Punjab Police today again replaced the head of the special investigation team (SIT) and two other members.

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This is now the fifth SIT that will carry out the probe against Majithia.

As per the orders, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the office of the Director, Bureau of Investigation, has ordered that “on administrative grounds, the SIT constituted to investigate case FIR No. 2/2021 cited in the subject above is hereby reconstituted comprising the following officers”.

Was booked in 2021

Majithia booked under the NDPS Act, 1985, on Dec 20, 2021

Then Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government had set up a three-member team, led by AIG Balraj Singh, to conduct the probe

FIR was registered at the state crime police station in Mohali on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force

In May 2023, IG, Patiala, Mukhvinder Singh Chhina made head of the SIT in place of Rahul S, DIG

In Jan 2024, Harcharan Singh Bhullar made the SIT head after Chhina’s retirement

Varun Sharma, AIG (Provisioning), who was a member of the outgoing SIT, today replaced DIG HS Bhullar as the SIT chairperson. SSP, Tarn Taran, Abhimanyu Rana and SP, NRI, Patiala, Gurbans Singh Bains are the other two members, read the orders, dated March 31.

Interestingly, all earlier SITs were headed by the rank of DIG and above and it is the first time that it is being headed by an AIG-rank officer.

Majithia was booked during the Congress regime in December 2021. The first SIT was headed by AIG Balraj Singh. After the AAP government took over, it replaced AIG Balraj with IG Rahul S. However, the SIT failed to submit a challan against Majithia.

Thereafter in May 2023, IGP (Patiala Range) MS Chhina was made the SIT head in place of DIG-cum-Vigilance Bureau Director Rahul S. The other members of the SIT remained the same. They included then AIG-rank officer Ranjit Singh Dhillon, Raghbir Singh (DSP, STF, Rupnagar) and Amarpreet Singh (DSP, Kharar-2), while IG Gursharan Singh Sandhu was asked to supervise the progress made by the probe team.

Meanwhile, when Chhina was promoted to the rank of Additional DGP, he continued to probe the Majithia case as the SIT head till his retirement in December 2024.

In January 2024, the government formed another SIT under DIG Harcharan Singh Bhullar. The three-member SIT had the then Patiala SSP, Varun Sharma, and Dhuri SP Yogesh Sharma as its members. The team last grilled Majithia in March for two days for over eight hours a day following the directions of the Supreme Court that directed Majithia to appear before the SIT probing the drugs case against him.

Earlier, Majithia had claimed innocence, saying that the police had no proof against him due to which it could not submit any challan. Majithia had spent over five months in Patiala jail in the case.