SAD chief Sukhbir Badal visits Nabha jail to meet Bikram Majithia, accuses AAP of ‘political vendetta’

Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Friday visited Nabha Jail to meet incarcerated party leader and his brother-in-law Bikram Singh Majithia.

He was accompanied by his wife and Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal — who is also Majithia’s sister — and Majithia’s wife Ganieve Kaur. The visit was seen as a show of solidarity amid speculations that all is not well within the Badal clan.

Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Sukhbir Badal accused the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government of targeting political opponents and drew parallels with the past struggles faced by SAD leaders, including his father, late Parkash Singh Badal. He also launched a sharp attack on Patiala SSP Varun Sharma, accusing him of “unethical conduct unbecoming of a police officer.”

Earlier on Tuesday, Dera Beas chief Gurinder Singh Dhillon, head of the Radha Soami Satsang based in Beas near Amritsar, also met Majithia in jail. The dera has a huge following across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh.

Majithia was arrested by the Vigilance Bureau (VB) on June 25 in a disproportionate assets case involving alleged laundering of over Rs 540 crore of “drug money.” On August 22, the VB filed a chargesheet running into more than 40,000 pages in a Mohali court.

This FIR against Majithia stems from an ongoing investigation being conducted by a Punjab Police special investigation team into the 2021 drug case.

In 2021, Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The action was taken on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug Special Task Force.

Majithia spent more than five months in Patiala jail and walked out of prison in August 2022 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail.