Chandigarh: Punjab governor Gulab Chand Kataria has granted sanction to prosecute senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia in a disproportionate assets (DA) case registered by state vigilance bureau in June this year, paving the way for his trial under prevention of corruption Act, 1988.
Majithia, a three-time MLA from Majitha constituency (in district Amritsar), is also brother-in-law of Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Badal.
The said DA case has its roots to the 2021 case under NDPS Act based on a report by the state anti-drug special task force report which alleged that Majithia was involved in the infamous multi-core synthetic drug racket uncovered in 2013 by the ED involving former Punjab police DSP Jagdish Bhola who named Majithia in the interrogation.
Majithia was arrested in February 2022 and jailed for about five months after which he had got bail from the Punjab and Haryana High Court the same year.
However, while the NDPS allegations were quashed by the courts in 2022 in the wake of insufficient evidence, a special investigation team (SIT) continued the investigation which led to registration of a fresh case in June, 2025 at the state vigilance bureau under sections 13(1)(b) and 13(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act read with the IPC criminal conspiracy provisions. The probe also reportedly brought to fore laundering of over Rs 540 crore in drug money through shell companies, hawala network and ``benami’’ property during Majithia’s ministerial stint from 2007 to 2017.
However, the case had also whipped up a major controversy with the SAD terming the AAP government action as ``political vendetta’’ to silence the opposition ahead of the 2027 state assembly elections and Sukhbir Badal terming the it as a ``murder of democracy’’ and challenging chief minister Bhagwant Mann to prove charges of foreign funding links.
