Punjab: SIT probing drug case involving SAD leader Bikram Majithia reconstituted

Chandigarh: The Punjab government has reconstituted the special investigation team (SIT) probing a drugs case involving SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia.

Majithia, a former minister, was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20, 2021.

Inspector General of Police (Patiala range) Mukhwinder Singh Chhina will now head the SIT in place of Rahul S, Director of Vigilance Bureau, as per an official order.

"Rahul S being part of the Vigilance Bureau is supervising a large number of corruption cases, and, as such it has been decided to reconstitute the said SIT with an officer posted in the field heading it, so that there is the required focus on the investigation of this important drug case," the order said.

It said the other members of the SIT will remain the same.

The other members of the SIT are assistant Inspector General Ranjit Singh Dhillon and Deputy Superintendents of Police (DSPs) Raghbir Singh and Amarpreet Singh.

The previous Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government had first formed the SIT, which was led by AIG Balraj Singh.

After the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in March 2022, it reconstituted the SIT under the supervision of Inspector General of Police Gursharan Singh Sandhu.

Shiromani Akali Dal leader Majithia was booked on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug special task force (STF) on a drug racket in the state.

The FIR was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.

In August last year, Majithia came out of the Patiala jail after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail in the drugs case.

Majithia was released after spending more than five months in the jail.