ED OFFICIAL NAMING MAJITHIA LEAVE NOTHING IN DOUBT: MANPREET

Majithia stands virtually indicted

Chandigarh, August 25: People’s Party of Punjab chief Manpreet Singh Badal todaysaid  the naming of Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majitha by the enforcement department official investigating the drug  smuggling and money laundering case had left nothing in doubt and here was a test case for Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal to prove the so called transparent functioning of the Akali Dal-BJP government in the state. He said even state BJP chief Kamal Sharma had no moral right to continue as the party president in view of the arrest of his the people patronised by him in corruption and drug smuggling cases.
Manpreet asserted  the issue was not of Majithia being named by ED officer Naranjan Singh as the person behind his transfer but also that of the highest authority that ordered the transfer as the department was under Union Finance Minister Arun  Jaitley.

He pointed out that ever since the ED official concerned  was transferred from Jalandhar, it was for the first time that Naranjan Singh had stated in the Punjab and Haryana High Court that it was because of summoning of Majitha by him and his questioning as part of the  investigations  into the money laundering and drug smuggling case that he had been transferred  which was stayed due to judicial intervention. He said now it can’t be termed as motivated allegation as the statement had been made in the court.

Stressing that the investigation  in this case should be monitored by the High Court following direct allegation against Majithia, he said now it was for the Chief Minister to decide as to what action he proposed against the minister concerned as earlier,  Jails Minister Sarwan Singh Phillaur had to resign from the cabinet as his name surfaced in the case and there could be no two standards.

The PPP chief also referred to the Ferozepur corruption and drug smuggling case  in which Jimmy Sandhu, who had been functioning as personal assistant of Kamal Sharma had  been arrested, thereby casting a shadow over the role of the BJP state president as all the persons whose names had surfaced during investigations were his associates. He said the BJP had always talked of morality in politics while Prime Minister Narendra Modi emphasis was on clean administration and transparency. However in this case, the high moral standards had come under question.