CHANDIGARH: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal on Saturday challenged Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to prove that Saraya Industries Limited, in which his brother-in-law and senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia had an inherited share of eleven percent, had received even one rupee in foreign funding from 2007 to the present time. Badal was denying allegations made in the Disproportionate Assets (DA) case registered against Majithia by the Punjab Vigilance Bureau.
Badal claimed the party had "conclusive proof of the alleged corrupt acts of Bhagwant Mann and his wife Dr. Gurpreet Kaur."
The SAD chief stated, "The only foreign funding received by Saraya Industries was in March 2006 (one year before SAD formed government in the state) when it received Rs 35 crore from United States-based Clearwater Corporation in exchange for 25 percent shares in the company. Majithia entered politics only in 2007."
He asserted that Clearwater Corporation, which had offices in several countries, had invested Rs 50,000 crore globally. "All money invested by this company through the NBFC in Saraya Industries was done after due clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)."
Badal claimed all transactions of Saraya Industries were scrutinised and accepted by the Income Tax department. "This clearly proves that claims of an investment of Rs 540 crore into Saraya Industries through foreign funding are absurd and malicious, and being done with the sole purpose of defaming Majithia."
He clarified that all cash transactions done by Saraya Industries while procuring sugarcane and conducting distillery business had also been scrutinised by the Income Tax department. Badal stated that Saraya Industries Limited was a private limited company deemed to be a public limited company and was a different entity from Bikram Majithia.
"Majithia has no control over the company's day-to-day functioning," Badal emphasised.
Badal alleged Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann had pressurised the Punjab DGP to register a case against Majithia because the latter was constantly exposing him and his "corrupt and immoral cabinet colleagues."
"The Chief Minister rang up the DGP on the night of June 24 and threatened to remove him in case he did not register a case against Majithia by the morning. Consequently, the DGP asked the vigilance department to register a case against the Akali leader at 10:40 pm the same night. Subsequently, a Disproportionate Assets case was registered against Majithia at 4:40 am on June 25," Badal claimed.
Badal said no investigation had been done before registering the case. "The Vigilance department did not deem it fit to issue a questionnaire to Majithia, which is a prerequisite before filing such a case."
He said an affidavit, which the government had submitted to the Supreme Court in 2023 while appealing for cancellation of the regular bail given to Majithia and seeking his custodial interrogation in an NDPS Act case, was used verbatim to register this new case against him.
"This was done despite the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the affidavit in April this year and refused to overturn the regular bail given to Majithia by the high court or grant the request for custodial interrogation. The apex court even asked the AAP government to complete the probe in two days following which it has now taken this new route to engage in political vendetta," Badal alleged.
Badal condemned the manner in which retired officers were being used by the AAP government to defame Majithia. "Former DGP Chattopadhyay is the same person who earlier registered a Disproportionate Assets case against former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and me and even travelled to several countries on government expense to find evidence of foreign properties owned by the Badal family. The entire case fell flat due to lack of any evidence."
He said retired Enforcement Director Niranjan Singh was being involved but the Enforcement Directorate, which had given a clean chit to Majithia, was being kept out of the ambit of the case.
Terming the entire case as illegal and a willful fabrication, Badal said: "We will go to the people and expose the AAP government."
He claimed the party had "conclusive proof of the alleged corrupt acts of Bhagwant Mann and his wife Dr. Gurpreet Kaur as well as a police officer who was allegedly handling all the illegal transactions for them" and would hold them accountable once SAD forms a government in the state.
Badal questioned the formation of five SITs to probe the NDPS case allegations against Majithia. "The truth is the AAP government failed to find any drugs in the NDPS case and has now failed to find any illegal assets in the Disproportionate Assets case," Badal alleged.
Meanwhile, retired Deputy Director of the Enforcement Directorate Niranjan Singh joined the probe today after former Punjab DGP Sarath Chattopadhya got his statement recorded yesterday.
Chattopadhyaya claimed there existed "100 percent proof" of nexus between SAD leader Bikram Singh Majithia and drug traffickers but previous state governments did not act against him despite enough evidence.
"My investigation report had recommended that the money trail should be probed," Chattopadhyaya said, adding that the investigation reports submitted by him when he headed the probe against the leader contained everything except the money laundering trail established by the Vigilance probe now.
