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."
The protest, which was led by BJP Yuva Morcha's national secretary Tajinder Pal Singh Bagga and its national president Tejasvi Surya, started around 10.30 a.m. from the IP College to the Chief Minister's residence.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on March 27 had announced that Central Civil Service Rules will be implemented for all employees under Chandigarh Administration. This decision has evoked sharp criticism from Punjab leaders who, cutting across party lines, termed it "an encroachment on Punjab's rights".
At a meeting with the Punjab Revenue Officers Association here, the minister assured representatives of the association that all their demands will be considered sympathetically, while asking them to immediately join their offices in larger public interest.
Chairing a high-level review meeting with officials of the NRI Affairs Department and members of the NRI Commission, he issued directions that the appointment of the nodal officers should be made in a transparent manner and working of these officers should be reviewed by the Deputy Commissioners on a regular basis.
On March 24, the police received a tip-off that two members of this cartel -- Dinesh and Nazir -- have collected a big consignment of heroin from Jharkhand and would come to Delhi to deliver the supply of contraband to one of their contacts.
