Majithia victim of conspiracy, says Sukhbir; dares CM to prove charges

Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday said arrested party leader Bikram Singh Majithia was a “victim of conspiracies hatched by various political parties” and dared Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to prove money laundering allegations against him.

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Addressing mediapersons here, he also accused former Punjab DGP Sidharth Chattopadhyaya of continuously making “false” accusations, which he said won’t stand the legal scrutiny.

Chattopadhyaya had on Friday claimed that there existed a nexus between Majithia and drug traffickers but previous state governments did not act against him despite enough evidence to establish it.

He said this interacting with mediapersons after recording his statement before the Vigilance Bureau in the disproportionate assets case registered against the Akali leader.

Badal dared Mann to prove that Saraya Industries Limited, in which Majithia had inherited 11 per cent share, received foreign funding.

The state government and the Vigilance Bureau had claimed in a press statement and the FIR that Majithia indulged in laundering drug money as shown by transactions to Saraya Industries and other companies.

Badal said, “The only foreign funding received by Saraya Industries was in March 2006 (one year before SAD formed government in the state) when it received Rs 35 crore from the United States-based Clearwater Corporation in exchange for 25 per cent shares in the company. Majithia entered politics only in 2007”.

He also asserted that Clearwater Corporation, which had offices in several countries, had invested Rs 50,000 crore globally. “All money invested by this company through the NBFC in Saraya Industries was done after due clearance from the Reserve Bank of India and approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board.”

“This clearly proves that claims of an investment of Rs 540 crore into Saraya Industries through foreign funding are absurd and malicious and being done with the sole purpose of defaming Majithia,” he said.

The SAD president also condemned the manner in which retired officers were “being used by the AAP government to defame Majithia”.

“Former DGP Chattopadhyay is the same person who earlier registered a disproportionate assets case against former CM Parkash Singh Badal and him and even travelled to several countries on government expense to find evidence of foreign properties owned by the Badal family,” he said.

“The entire case fell flat due to lack of any evidence,” Badal said.

The SAD president said retired Enforcement Director Niranjan Singh was being involved but the Enforcement Directorate, which had “given a clean chit” to Majithia, was “being kept out of the ambit of the case”.