JALANDHAR – A Punjabi movie starring Jagdish Bhola, the alleged kingpin of the Punjab drug racket who is in jail, has caught the eye of the Enforcement Directorate ahead of its release scheduled for February 17.
The ED on Tuesday summoned the film’s producer, Jagseer Sidhu, and actor and Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader KS Makhan to join investigation on January 30.
The movie, ‘Jugni Hath Kise Na Auni’, is based on drug smuggling inside jails, and was started five years ago when Bhola was still out of police net. Bhola is playing a villain in it, and wanted to use it as a launchpad for entry to Bollywood, said ED officials who did not want to be named.
However, the film could not be shot completely as per the original script after his arrest in November 2013. Now, a trailer on YouTube shows Makhan — who is originally a singer and was in trouble earlier too in a drug case — and Bhola — an Arjuna Awardee wrestler who also remained a policeman before he was dismissed — as inmates. Bhola had in 2008 produced a movie, Rustam-E-Hind, based on his achievements as a wrestler.
“The film producer, who belongs to Lehra Mohabbat in Bathinda, and Makhan remained closely linked with Bhola in personal life as well,” said a source privy to the ED investigation. The ED has already chargsheeted another resident of Lehra Mohabbat, Davinder Happy, in the drug racket case. “Links among all these characters in personal life have also emerged,” said the source. Makhan and Sidhu will now be quizzed in the ED office at Jalandhar by the case investigation officer, ED deputy director Niranjan Singh.
Makhan joined the SAD in November last, though he had contested the 2014 Lok Sabha elections on a Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) ticket from Anandpur Sahib segment. Hailing from Shanker village in Nakodar sub-division of Jalandhar, the singer was booked in 2007 in a case of drug smuggling, but was discharged in 2013.
ED sources said Makhan and Sidhu have been asked to appear with details of their properties. It has also emerged in the probe that Bhola, Makhan and Sidhu were “close friends”, and that the idea to make the film was Bhola’s, it is learnt. The company that is mentioned as the producer has listed a registered office in Chandigarh, but the ED has failed to find any such office there, officials said.
