Drug-Racket Linked Majithia ‘Collected Money’ From 3 Canadian NRIs, Says ED Probe
Alleged drug lord and former Punjab police DSP Jagdish Bhola had revealed the alleged links of the Canadian NRIs — Satpreet Satta, Amaninder Laadi and Parminder Pindi — with Majithia during his January 23-24, 2014 ED interrogation. The statements by businessman Jagjit Chahal and SAD ex-treasurer Maninder Aulakh before the ED clearly indicate that Majithia “patronised” the Canadian NRIs.
JALANDHAR – Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, who is in the eye of a storm for his alleged links with “international drug operatives” and for “accepting” Rs 35 lakh as “election fund” from an alleged synthetic drug kingpin Jagjit Chahal, also “used to collect money” in Canada from three NRIs — Satpreet Satta, Amaninder Laadi and Parminder Pindi.
Not only this, Majithia has also set up a 2-kanal palatial house near the New Oberoi resort on the outskirts of Shimla. Enforcement Directorate (ED) sleuths are now looking for more properties of Majithia and his aides in India and abroad.
It is investigating and zeroing in on the exact role of the three Canada-based NRIs in the laundering of drug money, if any. Sensational disclosures about Majithia have been made by Amritsar-based businessman Jagjit Singh Chahal, who was arrested in Nov 2013, and Maninder Singh Bittu Aulakh, former SAD treasurer (Amritsar-Rural) who was arrested by the ED under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in their duly signed statements given to the ED.
The investigation agency has, in turn, submitted these as part of the chargesheets in the Patiala-based PMLA court. The Tribune has in its possession attested copies of statements of Chahal and Aulakh, which were given to ED. Chahal, who owned three pharma companies in HP along with other businesses in Amritsar and Jalandhar, is currently out on bail. Aulakh, arrested under Section 19 of the PMLA, is lodged in Nabha jail.
Responding to an ED question whether Majithia had asked him to sell pseudoephedrine to Pindi and Satta, Chahal said, “Majithia had directed me to sell pseudoephedrine to them, but he did not sell the drug to them for we did not have the stock at that time.”
When ED sleuths asked Chahal if Majithia used to meet Satta and others and if he got any money from them during his frequent Canada trips, Chahal said, “I know Majithia used to take money from people in Canada.”
The sensational content of these statements clearly indicate that Majithia “patronised” Canada-based NRIs Satpreet Satta, Amaninder Laadi and Parminder Pindi.
These NRIs, according to Chahal’s confession before the ED, used to stay at Majithia’s Amritsar and Chandigarh-based private and official residences, respectively, whenever they visited India on their “pseudoephedrine procurement jaunt”. In a statement on February 9, Chahal said, “From 2007 to 2012, I gave about Rs 35 lakh to Majithia, who is a minister in the Punjab Government. I had given him the amount in bits and parts as Majithia was in need of money for his election.”
To a question by ED Assistant Director Niranjan Singh about Majithia’s properties, Chahal said he only knew about two of those — House no. 43, Green Avenue, Amritsar and a 2-kanal ‘kothi’ near New Oberoi resort on the outskirts of Shimla. “He got the Shimla ‘kothi’ made in 2010. Apart from these, I don’t know of any other property,” said Chahal in his signed statement.
In the same statement, Chahal has also admitted that the three NRIs had come to him for procuring pseudoephedrine. “Bittu Aulakh told me that Bikram Majithia has directed that we have to help these three people,” said Chahal in his confessional statement. Drug lord and former Punjab police DSP Jagdish Bhola had revealed the alleged links of the trio with Majithia during his January 23-24, 2014 ED interrogation.
Admissible as evidence
These statements recorded by the ED Assistant Director, in the capacity of a Judicial Magistrate as the powers vested in him under the Section 50 of the PMLA, were admissible as evidence in a court of law.
Legal experts said unlike in the case of statements given to the police, an accused or any other person cannot retract from his or her statements given to an official under the provisions of Section 50 of the PMLA in court.
The ED, it is learnt, is now scouting for more properties of Majithia and others facing investigation in the case in India and Canada. Majithia was quizzed by the ED Assistant Director on December 26 last year in connection with the infamous drug racket.
Given as poll fund
On handing over Rs 35 lakh to Majithia in parts, Chahal confessed, “I personally gave Rs 35 lakh to Majithia in 7-8 parts in the drawing room of his Amritsar house. “Before heading for Bikram’s residence, I used to fix the meetings with him through his personal assistant Kartar Singh.”
Satta accompanied Majithia
“Satpreet Satta used to stay at Majithia’s Amritsar house and at his official residence at Kothi no. 362, Sector 39, Chandigarh. He used to accompany Majithia wherever he went. Satpreet had coordinated with various people for Majithia’s 2007 Vidhan Sabha poll campaign,” said Maninder Singh Aulakh in his January 13 statement before the ED.
