Senior Akali leader Bikram Majithia sent to 14-day judicial custody

Chandigarh, July 6 (IANS) A Mohali court on Sunday remanded senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader and former Punjab Minister Bikram Singh Majithia to 14-day judicial custody in a disproportionate assets case.

He will be sent to a jail in Nabha, with the next hearing in the case will be on July 19.

For 11 days he was on the vigilance remand. The public prosecutor had cited undergoing investigations relating to Majithia's “ill-gotten” properties in many states, including Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.

In a related case, the Punjab and Haryana High Court on July 4 asked the state counsel to seek instructions while adjourning the hearing on Majithia’s plea against “illegal arrest and subsequent remand”.

Justice Tribhuvan Dahiya’s Bench also fixed the case for further hearing on July 8. Majithia had challenged the remand orders, terming them as illegal.

He submitted in his petition that the case was a result of “political witch-hunting and vendetta initiated by the present political dispensation with the sole object of maligning and harassing him, as he has been a vocal critic and political opponent”.

The Vigilance Bureau, on June 25, arrested Majithia from his residence in a posh locality in Amritsar city on charges of laundering more than Rs 540 crore of drug money.

Investigations by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the police probing the first information report (FIR) of 2021 and the Vigilance Bureau revealed massive laundering of drug money facilitated by Majithia, the government has said.

Preliminary investigations revealed that more than Rs 540 crore of drug money has been laundered through several ways, including a huge unaccounted cash of Rs 161 crore deposited in bank accounts of companies controlled by Majithia, channelisation of Rs 141 crore through suspected foreign entities and excess deposition of Rs 236 crore without disclosure or explanation in company financial statements.

Also, the government has said there is an acquisition of movable and immovable assets by Majithia without any legitimate source of income.

A Vigilance Bureau spokesperson has told the media that it has registered a case based on a report of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) registered under Sections 25, 27-A and 29 of the NDPS Act, wherein substantial evidence has been uncovered indicating massive laundering of drug money by Majithia.

--IANS

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