Punjab: SIT probing drug case involving SAD leader Bikram Majithia reconstituted

SAD termed the exercise as 'all politics only to settle political vendetta against opponents'

The Punjab government has reconstituted the special investigation team (SIT) probing a drugs case involving SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia.

Majithia, a former minister, was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20, 2021.

Inspector General of Police (Patiala range) Mukhwinder Singh Chhina will now head the SIT in place of Rahul S, Director of Vigilance Bureau, as per an official order.

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"Rahul S being part of the Vigilance Bureau is supervising a large number of corruption cases, and, as such it has been decided to reconstitute the said SIT with an officer posted in the field heading it, so that there is the required focus on the investigation of this important drug case," the order said,

Reacting to the development, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) said there was nothing new in changing the SIT chief as the Bhagwant Mann-led AAP government was "forcing officers to toe the line of government against Majithia."

It termed the exercise as "all politics only to settle political vendetta against opponents".

The other members of the SIT -- Assistant Inspector General Ranjit Singh Dhillon and Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) Raghbir Singh and Amarpreet Singh -- will remain the same, as per the order.

The previous Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government had first formed the SIT, which was led by AIG Balraj Singh.

After the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in March 2022, it reconstituted the SIT under the supervision of Inspector General of Police Gursharan Singh Sandhu.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Majithia was booked on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force (STF) on a drug racket in the state.

The FIR was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.

In August last year, Majithia came out of the Patiala jail after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail in the drugs case. He spent five months in the jail.

Attacking the AAP government, SAD leader Arshdeep Singh Kler said, "After failing on all fronts to perform, the Bhagwant Mann government is trying to divert the attention of Punjabis. This is not the first time the chief of SIT has been changed."

"Whosoever has refused to work on a political story written by the governments was always changed, and changing of two advocate generals and three DGPs during the tenure of the Congress government is a testimony of it," he said.

Kler accused the AAP government of trying to pressure officers to work on its "line of political thinking".

"More than one and a half year has passed since this case was registered and till date the government and police have failed to file challan because there was no evidence of wrongdoing by Majithia," he said in a statement.