SAD leader Bikram Majithia questioned for over 7 hours in drugs case, slams Punjab CM Mann

PTI

Chandigarh, December 18

Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia was on Monday questioned for more than seven hours by a Punjab Police special investigation team in a drugs case, which he claimed was “false” and borne out of “political vengeance”.

Majithia reached the SIT office in Patiala with his counsels around 11:45 am and left around 7 pm.

The SIT is led by Additional Director General of Police (Patiala range) Mukhwinder Singh Chhina. Tight security arrangements were made around the SIT office.

Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act in 2021.

Speaking to reporters in Patiala after being questioned, Majithia hit out at Mann, calling him a ‘tanashah’ (dictator) and said he was not afraid of going to jail for raising the voice of people.

“Facts will not change. All this is vindictiveness and political vengeance. Whosoever raises voice against this government or ‘tanashahi’ Mann, a false case is registered against him,” said Majithia.

“It is your (Mann) misconception that you can weaken Majithia this way. I will fight with full force against you,” said Majithia.

“I am not scared of going to jail. If you think that I will stop raising the voice of people out of fear of going to jail, it is not going to happen.”

The former minister said he was summoned in a two-year-old case for standing by Mann's daughter from his previous marriage. Majithia had earlier shared a purported video of Mann's daughter allegedly speaking against her father.

The Akali leader said there is no merit in the case and this is just “politicisation”. “Only politics is being played,” he said.

Majithia also targeted former director general of police S Chattopadhyaya for the registration of case against him in 2021.

He said Chattopadhayaya faces a major penalty in the matter of security breach during Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to the state in January last year.

On January 5, 2022, Modi's convoy was stranded on a flyover due to a blockade by protesters in Ferozepur after which he returned from Punjab without attending any event, including a rally.

After Majithia came out of the SIT office in Patiala, a large number of Akali workers were standing outside in his support.

Earlier, before reaching the SIT office, Majithia had said he is a law-abiding citizen and has complete trust in law.

The SAD leader accused the AAP government of playing politics over the drugs issue and claimed that he was summoned by the SIT because he was speaking against Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann.

“It is only politics and it has become the habit of Bhagwant Mann to play politics. They have been sleeping for two years. It's my request, if you have any proof then present it in court,” Majithia said, slamming the chief minister.

“My fight is against the state machinery and against the state government which lodges an FIR against anyone who utters a word against it,” he told reporters in Patiala.

Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20, 2021, during the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government.

The action was taken based on a 2018 report of the anti-drug Special Task Force. The FIR was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.

Majithia came out of the Patiala jail in August 2022 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail in the drugs case. He was released after spending more than five months in prison.

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