Chandigarh, June 7 (IANS) The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Tuesday said there was a grave threat to the life of former minister Bikram Singh Majithia and that there was every likelihood of him being implicated in another false case at the behest of AGDP Harpreet Sidhu who had been entrusted with the additional charge of prisons to settle political and personal scores.
Addressing a press conference here to highlight the letter written by Majithia's wife and Majitha legislator Ganieve Kaur Majithia to the DGP along with a copy to chief minister Bhagwant Mann, senior SAD leaders Maheshinder Singh Grewal and Daljit Singh Cheema demanded the immediate removal of Sidhu from the additional charge of the ADGP, Prisons, besides taking other necessary action in the case.
The leaders said there were grave apprehensions in the minds of the family of Majithia as well as that of the SAD that Sidhu had been posted as the ADGP Prisons with the motive of planting something on the former minister.
They said even though Sidhu was a most 'incompetent' police officer he was used by successive governments to settle scores with Majithia and that he had been posted as the ADGP, Prisons, with the same goal by the AAP government.
The SAD leaders said there was a severe animosity between the families of Majithia and Sidhu.
They said Sidhu was closely related to Majithia as the police officer's mother and the paternal aunt of Majithia were real sisters. "There has been bad blood between the families for generations with Sidhu's family blaming Majithia's family for the death of their aunt. This strained relationship and animosity was also withheld by Sidhu from the high court before he embarked upon conducting an inquiry on the alleged role of Majithia in a drug case."
Grewal and Cheema said when the high court did not proceed with the report of Sidhu, the latter maliciously handed over the report which was supposed to lie in a sealed envelope to Navjot Singh Sidhu, a politician who was inimical to Majithia.
The SAD leaders said towards the end of the term of the previous Congress government, Sidhu handed over his home cooked report to the DGP to register a false case under various sections of the NDPS Act against Majithia.
They said even after this, Sidhu kept interfering in the case and even wrote a letter to the AAP government on March 8 on which basis the SIT was reconstituted.
"Due to this Sidhu's dictat is treated as a command by the SIT which reports directly to him."
According to a source, the meeting continued for two hours around and both CMs discussed how to give free 300 units of electricity in Punjab - as promised by the party in its election campaign.
The Left alliance members accused the ABVP of forcefully imposing a ban on non vegetarian food at the Kaveri Hostel in the campus while the ABVP alleged that the members of the Left alliance including the NSUI were not allowing them to conduct a Pooja and Havan programme on the occasion of Ram Navami.
Two people were declared dead and several others injured after two cable cars in a ropeway collided with each other at the Trikut hills close to Baba Baidyanath Temple in Deoghar on Sunday.
On April 4, the Force seized over two kg of contrabands suspected to be heroin, while on January 12, 6.3 kilograms heroin and one pistol, one magazine and 50 rounds were recovered.
The crime data indicates that 158 murders have taken place in the state this year in almost 100 days making an average of 50 murders per month, while in previous years, the number of murders was 724 and 757 in 2021 and 2020, respectively, making the monthly average of murders for 2021 and 2020 was 60 and 65 murders respectively.
Terming the record-breaking figures a result of the good arrangements, he said the state government was committed to welfare of the farmers and would continue to take all possible steps to facilitate them.
