ED questions Majithia in synthetic drug case

While the Punjab Revenue Minister was being questioned, Congress and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad activists staged protests outside and burnt his effigy.

December 26, 2014 03:27 pm | Updated November 16, 2021 04:49 pm IST - JALANDHAR:

Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was on Friday questioned by the Enforcement Directorate at its Jalandhar office in connection with alleged money laundering in the Rs. 6,000-crore synthetics drug racket case. Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia was on Friday questioned by the Enforcement Directorate at its Jalandhar office in connection with alleged money laundering in the Rs. 6,000-crore synthetics drug racket case. Photo: Akhilesh Kumar

A team of the Enforcement Directorate (ED), led by Special Director (Northern Range) Karnal Singh, on Friday questioned Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia in connection with alleged money laundering in the Rs. 6,000-crore synthetics drug racket case.

 

The ED had earlier issued summons to Mr. Majithia on December 19-20 and asked him to appear at its Jalandhar office at 11 a.m. today. He reached the Zonal office of ED here at Green Model Town a good 40 minutes early and avoiding any questions from the media, which was present in large numbers, headed straight inside the premises.

 

While Mr. Majithia was being questioned, activists of the Congress and the Right-wing Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad held protests against him outside the ED office and also burnt his effigy. They were later arrested by the police.

 

Unlike in the past when most of those accused or summoned were questioned by the Zonal officials only, Mr. Majithia was questioned by a five-member team of senior officers, including three from Delhi, for nearly five hours.. Emerging from the ED office, Mr. Majithia said he would cooperate with any investigating agency in the country. “I also want the truth to come out,” he said.

'Political witch-hunt'

Mr. Majithia had earlier claimed that he was being subjected to a political witch-hunt even after five central investigation agencies had found nothing against him during the UPA rule and a PIL filed by Congress leaders had been dismissed by the High Court.

 

The ED had by November-end prepared a 25-page, 50-point questionnaire for Mr. Majithia about his links with Non-Resident Indian drug dealers Satpreet Satta, Amrinder Laddi and Parminder Pindi as also the assets and income of his family.

Incidentally, Mr. Majithia is the younger brother of Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is married to Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal.

  Multi-billion rupee racket

The multi-billion rupee racket had first been detected in March 2013. Following the arrest and questioning of Canadian national of Indian origin, Devinder Singh, the Punjab Police had learnt that precursor chemicals ketamine, ephedrine and pseudo-ephedrine were being diverted from the medical sector and procured by those running the racket from Delhi, Mumbai and Hyderabad. These were then smuggled to Canada, where these chemicals were being processed into synthetic drugs by Chinese and Vietnamese nationals.

 

Mr. Majithia’s name had first cropped up in the case when Jagdish Singh Bhola, a dismissed Deputy Superintendent of Police and Arjuna-award winning wrestler, said the Akali Cabinet Minister and Damanvir Singh, son of the then Punjab Jail Minister, Swaran Singh Phillaur, had assisted him in procuring synthetic chemicals and precursors from owners of pharmaceutical units in Himachal Pradesh and Punjab.

 

Bhola and another accused, industrialist and pharmaceutical firm owner Jagjit Singh Chahal, had also claimed that Mr. Majithia knew Canada-based drug dealers Satta and Pindi. It had also been claimed by Chahal that the two were given a gunman and a car by the Minister and weree also present at his wedding in November 2009.

 

The ED had then summoned Damanvir Singh, following which Mr. Phillaur was asked to resign from the post by Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal. Another Akali leader, chief parliamentary secretary Avinash Chander, had also been questioned by the directorate, which had then said it would not be able to file a challan in court till Mr. Majithia was questioned.

 

Mr. Majithia had, while assuring cooperation in the investigation, maintained that he was being dragged in only on the basis of the statement of a criminal.

Embarrassment for Congress

The Congress, which has used the issue to attack the Akalis, also faced embarrassment when their MP Santokh Singh Chaudhary was also interrogated in the case.

The names of Phillaur, Avinash Chander and Chaudhary were found in the diary of arrested synthetic chemical supplier Chunni Lal Gaba.

 

Top News Today

Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.