Punjab: SAD leader Bikram Majithia quizzed for over 4 hours in drugs case

This was Majithia's second appearance before the SIT this month. He had earlier appeared before the SIT on December 18 and was questioned for more than seven hours. When asked if the SIT was satisfied with his replies, Majithia told reporters after the questioning that the officials concerned could speak about it.

Patiala:Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia on Saturday appeared before a Punjab Police special investigation team here in connection with a drugs case and was questioned for more than four hours, official sources said.

This was Majithia's second appearance before the SIT this month. He had earlier appeared before the SIT on December 18 and was questioned for more than seven hours. When asked if the SIT was satisfied with his replies, Majithia told reporters after the questioning that the officials concerned could speak about it.

The SIT is led by Additional Director General of Police (Patiala range) Mukhwinder Singh Chhina, who is due to retire on Sunday. Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20, 2021, when the then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government was in power.

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 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. Speaking to reporters after coming out of the SIT office, Majithia reiterated that the case against him is "politically motivated".

He said SIT head Chhina will be retiring from the post on Sunday and asked Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann not to use his officers to "target" the Akali leader. "If you have the guts, you should become the chairman of the SIT," Majithia told Mann. Referring to the bail granted to him by the high court, Majithia said the court orders never said that he needs to appear before any SIT.

"But as I am a law-abiding citizen, I want the truth must come out," he said. Taking about the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Punjab, Majithia said, "I said earlier too that I am not scared of these cases". They unleash a political vendetta against anyone who raises his voice against them, he alleged. "If the government thinks they can stop Majithia from raising Punjab issues, then they are mistaken," he said referring to his "frequent summoning".

The former minister reiterated that he was summoned by the SIT 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. "I was summoned when I gave a statement against the CM," he said.

"They summoned me on October 18 and I appeared, but I had said I would not be available on December 27-28. I did not appear on December 27 and they summoned me again on December 30...The summoning was only to satisfy the ego of the CM," he added.

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