Akali Ministers left red-faced after the ED stepped in and denied it had given a clean chit to the minister.
JALANDHAR – Barely 48 hours before the Delhi Assembly elections, reports of the Enforcement Directorate (ED) having given a clean chit to state Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia in the multi-crore Bhola drug racket, created ripples in political circles.
Even as ED officials at Jalandhar and New Delhi described the reports as “baseless,” top Akali ministers Sikander Singh Maluka, Sohan Singh Thandal, Virsa Singh Valtoha, Tota Singh, Gulzar Singh Ranike, Sharanjit Singh Dhillon and Janmeja Singh Sekhon hastened to issue statements, welcoming the “development” and bitterly attacking the Congress.
To please Majithia, who is campaigning in the Capital, they showered praise on the minister. They were left red-faced after the ED stepped in and denied it had given a clean chit to the minister.
Deputy Director of the ED in Delhi, Rajeshwar Singh, said he was not aware of any such development.
When approached the Assistant Director, Jalandhar, Niranjan Singh, who is probing the Bhola case, asked: “Where is the chit?”
In their joint statement, ministers Tota Singh and Maluka said: “The clean chit given to Majithia by the ED with the explicit declaration that he is not connected with the drugs issue has exposed the nefarious propaganda of the Congress that is bent upon defaming the state. The time has come that PPCC president Partap Singh Bajwa (pic) and other Congress leaders, who had pointed a finger at Majithia, should tender a public apology and seek penance from the Almighty for the damage done to the image of the state.”
Partap Singh BajwaIn a separate statement, ministers Ranike, Dhillon and Sekhon said: “The truth is finally out. It has now been proved that Punjab Congress president Partap Singh Bajwa used a statement given by druglord Jagdish Bhola to tarnish Majithia’s image and subjected him to a year-long media trial”.
Asked on what basis he had issued the statement, Maluka replied: “I got information through the media and responded to it.” Asked if it was an effort by the SAD to plant news ahead of the crucial Assembly poll in Delhi (the SAD in contesting four seats there), he said: “We have no such intention at all.”
