AAP govt indulging in political vendetta to gag Majithia: Akali Dal

Chandigarh, June 26 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Thursday said the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab has "violated" the law by registering a disproportionate assets case against party leader Bikram Singh Majithia without holding either a preliminary or regular probe.

It accused the government of indulging in a political vendetta to gag Majithia as well as divert attention from the "failure" of its 'Yudh Nashean Virudh' drive.

Senior party leaders Balwinder Bhundar, Maheshinder Grewal and Daljit Cheema accused the government of misleading Punjabis and even committing contempt of court by stating that Majithia had been arrested in an Rs 540-crore drug case.

"This is not only absurd but a bundle of lies for which the AAP leaders will be held accountable," said Grewal, adding "the government should tell why it has not released a single complaint with regard to the Rs 540 crore figure it had concocted in".

He said in stark contrast, when AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia had been arrested in the Delhi liquor scam, there were specific complaints from liquor contractors that they had given bribe money to the duo.

He also cited how earlier Majithia had been granted bail by the High Court in the NDPS case registered against him by the previous Congress government after it found that there was no recovery of drug money, no transaction had been proved and that no money had been exchanged.

Grewal told the media that the public prosecutor stated on Thursday in the court that only a disproportionate assets case had been registered against Majithia.

"Even this is fabricated. The properties mentioned in the complaint were in the Majithia family even before Bikram Majithia was born. The Majithia family is an old landed family with Bikram Majithia's grandfather owning planes and even a Rolls-Royce car. It has also been wrongly imputed that Bikram Majithia was responsible for decision making in the Saraya Industries, as he had resigned as a Director of the company in 2007."

Another Akali Dal leader, Cheema, said all the allegations mentioned in the new case against Majithia had been submitted to the Supreme Court recently while seeking to cancel the bail given to the Akali leader in an NDPS case.

"The Supreme Court did not take cognisance of the allegations, and now they have been recycled and turned into a new case," Cheema said.

He also cited how the AAP government had created a curfew-like situation in the Mohali court where Majithia was presented on Thursday, resulting in the "harassment" of litigants.

Veteran leader Bhundar said the "vindictive" action had made people remember the Emergency and termed it as the "murder of democracy".

Bhundar said the AAP government had been trying to "implicate" Majithia for more than three years and had formed repeated Special Investigation Teams (SITs) and even suspended officers to force them to do their illegal bidding.

He also thanked the opposition for expressing solidarity with Majithia and raising their voice against the "revengeful" action.

Investigations by the SIT of the police probing the first information report (FIR) of 2021 and the Vigilance Bureau revealed massive laundering of drug money facilitated by Majithia, the government said on Wednesday.

It further said preliminary investigations revealed that more than Rs 540 crore "drug money" has been laundered through several ways, including a huge unaccounted cash of Rs 161 crore deposited in bank accounts of companies controlled by Majithia, channelisation of Rs 141 crore through suspected foreign entities and excess deposition of Rs 236 crore without disclosure or explanation in company financial statements.

--IANS

vg/svn