Punjab Vigilance creating false evidence against Majithia, say Akali leaders

Chandigarh, July 25 The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) on Friday said after failing to gather evidence in the case of disproportionate assets case against former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, now Vigilance Bureau officials have started "creating false evidence" against the Akali leader.

SAD chief spokesman Arshdeep Singh Kler and Majithia's advocate Damanbir Singh Sobti said the Vigilance bureau has "failed" to buttress their claims that 29 mobiles had been recovered from the Akali Dal leader, including Rs 141 crore transactions, Rs 540 crore investment and 1,000 acres of land in Himachal Pradesh.

They said now, "The Vigilance bureau is picking up people illegally and torturing them to sign statements."

Giving an example, they said Superintendent of Police G. S. Bains picked up Balwinder Singh and his brother-in-law Manjinder Singh from Amritsar on July 21.

"They were kept in a private hotel in Amritsar and were compelled to sign their statements under Section 164, stating that investments done by his late brother Rupinder Singh were made with cash given by Bikram Singh Majithia. The next day, the duo was brought to the Vigilance Bureau office in Mohali, where investigating officer Inderpal Singh rebuked them in filthy language," Kler and Sobti said.

Kler and Sobti told the media here that the family of Bains and Singh approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court, and a habeas corpus petition was filed.

"The High Court appointed a warrant officer who raided the Vigilance Bureau office at Mohali along with a team. They said that when the government came to know about this development, Bains and Singh were immediately taken to Amritsar and were forced by Vigilance officials to give a statement to their family that they were coming in a bus, which they flatly refused," Kler and Sobti said.

They said now, the statement of Vasu Pathak is being recorded under which Vasu was asked to state that one Jeeta Maur made an investment with cash received from Majithia.

They also disclosed that one Mahesh Puri, who introduced himself as a retired CBI official and Advisor of AAP supremo Arvind Kejriwal in his legal cases, visited the Vigilance office regularly and guided Vigilance officials on how to proceed in the case.

They claimed that another person named Vishaljit Singh also "dictated" to the officials in the case.

"Both Mahesh Puri and Vishaljit Singh are forcing officers to sign papers in the case under a deep-rooted conspiracy which has been hatched in Delhi," Kler and Sobti said.

Majithia's legal team also disclosed that one Ravjot Kaur Grewal and Naveen Singla had also been attached with the team without any formal orders.

"These persons are overseeing all the work to create and fabricate evidence against Majithia. The team said that evidence collection was over now, and evidence creation was in process," Kler said.

They apprehended that a third false case might be registered against Majithia to "silence" his voice, who always took on Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann for "failing" to deliver on the promises made to the people of Punjab

Kler said "vendetta politics" had become a new tool in the hands of the government to hide its "failures", and in the next one and a half years, people of Punjab might witness many such "false cases against opponents of the government".

A Mohali court on July 19 extended the judicial custody of SAD leader Majithia till August 2 in connection with a disproportionate assets case involving alleged laundering of Rs 540 crore in drug money.

The bureau arrested Majithia from his house in Amritsar on June 25.

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