A local court on Wednesday directed the Punjab Police to furnish a copy of the FIR registered against the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia within 24 hours.
According to the Amritsar Rural police, Majithia and around 50-60 others “stormed the police station on Sunday, went around searching its rooms and damaged case files to forcibly try to free a detained party worker from police custody.” Akali Dal, however, alleged the man who was arrested was a party polling agent in the recent civic body polls, and he was kept at an SHO’s quarters instead of a police lock-up. This was a “fabricated” case, it alleged.
Since Monday, police teams have been conducting raids at Majithia’s suspected hideouts, including his residences in Amritsar and Chandigarh, but the Akali leader, who is brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal, has remained untraceable.
Police have constituted a special investigation team (SIT) to probe the incident and issued a lookout circular (LOC) against the former minister.
On Tuesday, Majithia’s counsel and SGPC member advocate Bhagwant Singh Sialka approached the Amritsar session court, seeking directions to the police to provide a copy of the FIR.
“As the police did not provide the FIR copy, citing the unavailability of the investigating officer, judicial magistrate first class Neelam had to issue a formal direction to the cops to provide the same in 24 hours. We hope the police will provide the copy by Thursday morning,” Sialka said, adding, “Once we get the FIR, we will move an anticipatory bail plea either before a local court or the Punjab and Haryana high court.”
Majithia’s wife and MLA Ganieve Kaur accused the state government of “misleading” the public through claims of the LOC against her husband.
She claimed that Majithia’s passport had already been deposited in a court, and the police and the investigating agencies were fully aware of this fact. “Majithia has neither fled nor intends to flee,” Kaur said in a statement, adding that he is exercising his legal rights and remains engaged with his legal team in pursuing the matter through the courts.
Repeated attempts to contact senior officials of the Amritsar rural police for comments remained unsuccessful.
