Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) President Sukhbir Singh Badal.
Credit: PTI File Photo
Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday (July 2) claimed that several Akali workers who were going to Mohali to express solidarity with party leader Bikram Singh Majithia, who has been arrested in a disproportionate assets case, have been detained by police.
According to the party, many of its workers in Amritsar, Beas and other places have been "detained" at their residences.
Majithia will be produced in a Mohali court on Wednesday as his seven-day vigilance remand comes to an end. Heavy police deployment has been made outside the Vigilance Bureau (VB) office and the district court complex in Mohali.
Badal accused the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government of imposing an "undeclared emergency" in the state.
"Bhagwant Mann has imposed an UNDECLARED EMERGENCY in Punjab. Akali workers proceeding to Mohali today for expressing solidarity with S Bikram Singh Majithia, who has been framed in a false case by the Aam Aadmi Party govt, are being detained at their houses & even being stopped at 'nakas' put up on all major roads.
"Such repressive acts smack of cowardice. It is clear that chief minister @BhagwantMann is rattled by the outpouring of support for Bikram," Badal said in a post on X.
"I want to make it clear - the @Akali_Dal_ & its workers will not be deterred by such repressive acts. In the past also Akalis have countered repression with peoples' movements. Now also we will teach a befitting lesson to the corrupt and dictatorial @AamAadmiParty regime with the support of Punjabis," he said.
The VB arrested Majithia on June 25 for his alleged involvement in laundering over Rs 540 crore of "drug money". He was sent to seven-day vigilance remand on June 26 by a Mohali court.
In the FIR registered against Majithia, the VB claimed that preliminary investigations revealed that more than Rs 540 crore of "drug money" was laundered through several ways and it was allegedly facilitated by Majithia.
The FIR against Majithia stems from an ongoing investigation being conducted by a Punjab Police Special Investigation Team into the 2021 drugs 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 in the case. He walked out of prison in August 2022 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail.