Chandigarh: Media reports say the Enforcement Directorate (ED) has a list of questions ready for Punjab revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia, who would be summoned “within a short period” in a case of money laundering, as part of an ongoing probe into the multi-crore drug racket case that has rocked Punjab and the SAD-BJP regime over the past few months, it is learnt.
A news reported by the Hindustan Times (HT) says documents accessed by HT show that ED has completed all formalities and, on Monday, the central agency also finalised the questionnaire that would be put before the firebrand minister of the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD). The 25-page document simply entitled ‘Questionnaire for Bikram Singh Majithia’ contains more than 50 questions pertaining to personal and business details.
The drug racket had been busted last year with the arrest of former policeman Jagdish Singh Bhola, and he too had named Majithia.
Now, according to well-placed sources, the ED’s move to summon Majithia — brother of Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal, the wife of CM Parkash Singh Badal’s son and deputy Sukhbir Singh Badal — has been initiated after a nod from the “high-ups in Delhi” in view of political sensitivity of the case. ED officials, however, made it clear that mere summoning did not vindicate involvement in the case.
Incidentally, the fresh development on the drug mafia issue comes at a time when the Punjab BJP is launching a campaign under ‘drug-free Punjab’ slogan, has adopted a tough stand on the issue — widely seen as a part of its shrewd strategy to deflect the public anger on partner SAD. The saffron party has, in fact, been shrill in demanding resignation of Akali legislator and chief parliamentary secretary Avinash Chander who was summoned by the ED in the drug case earlier.
The ED is under India’s finance ministry headed by BJP’s Arun Jaitley, who had unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha polls from Amritsar after reported assurances from the SAD that it was a “safe seat”.