The Punjab Vigilance Bureau (VB) Wednesday informed a Mohali court that they have unearthed the registry of 402 hectares of undeclared land in Shimla after Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia was taken to Himachal Pradesh as a part of investigation in a disproportionate assets case. The VB also informed the court that investigations further revealed that Majithia’s wife, Ganieve Kaur, held a disputed 25% share in Jalandhar’s Green Avenue Society. The VB made the disclosures in court while seeking further custody of Majithia who was produced before the it after his seven-day remand ended Wednesday. The court extended his remand by four more days. The Akali leader was produced before the court amid tight security. The security was also beefed up at the VB office. The media was also kept at bay. Majithia was arrested on June 25 in the case allegedly involving laundering of Rs 540 crore of "drug money". Speaking to the mediapersons after the hearing, public prosecutor Ferry Sofat said many facts came up during investigation by the VB in the DA case against Majithia. "Majithia was taken to Shimla where a registry of 402 hectares of land was found and it has not been declared in an affidavit till now," Sofat claimed. The copy of the registry was produced before the court, he added. Special public prosecutor Preet Inderpal Singh said during interrogation of Majithia, the VB came to know about some sales deeds of land in Mashobra in Shimla. Majithia had shown 0.56 hectare of land in his affidavit in 2012 whereas the sales deeds pertained to 2010-11, Singh claimed. "A huge chunk of 402 hectares of land was shown in the sales deed," he said, "which was discovered when Majithia was taken to Shimla." The prosecution further claimed that Rs 161 crore in unaccounted cash was discovered, whose source remains unclear. “The amount did not enter through any banking transaction,” said the prosecutor, adding that Majithia is to be taken to Gorakhpur for further investigation into the origin of this money. On June 30, Majithia was taken to Mashobra in Himachal Pradesh for verification of property allegedly linked to his family. On July 1, he was taken to his office in Majitha in Amritsar. Singh claimed that the investigation revealed that a farm house at Sainik Farms in Delhi, which had earlier been sold, was repurchased by Majithia's father when the Akalis returned to power in Punjab. He claimed that the value of that farmhouse was estimated to be in hundreds of crores. Majithia's counsel, Arshdeep Kaler and HS Dhanoa, countered that the Akali leader has nothing to do about any property purchase dealings done by his father. The special public prosecutor said Majithia's family had shown Sainik Farms as their address in Saraya Industries' records. During the VB investigation, it also came to the fore that Ganieve Kaur, an Akali MLA, has 25 per cent share in the Green Avenue Society in Jalandhar and for this share, crores of rupees were given, Singh said. Advocate Kler claimed the VB could not produce new facts before the court. Kler said the VB could not find anything from Himachal Pradesh, Majitha in Amritsar and Chandigarh. Kler later alleged that the "government is hiding from the media”. "If they were truly honest, they wouldn't be afraid to present Majithia publicly. This case is just like the previous drug case where no drugs were ever found. Here too, no fresh evidence has emerged. Majithia hasn’t even visited Gorakhpur in over 16 years, yet they insist on taking him there.” he added. The lawyers claimed that the properties being cited in court had already been fully disclosed in affidavits submitted to the Supreme Court, and that Majithia is “not a director in any of the mentioned companies only an 11% shareholder in inherited assets.”Kler further accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of manipulating media narratives and suppressing opposition voices, calling the arrest“a political vendetta under the garb of investigation.” In the fresh FIR registered against Majithia, the VB claimed preliminary investigations have revealed laundering of over Rs 540 crore of "drug money" through several ways and it was allegedly facilitated by Majithia. This FIR against Majithia stems from an ongoing investigation being conducted by a Punjab Police special investigation team into the 2021 drug case. In 2021, Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act. The action was taken on the basis of a 2018 report of the anti-drug Special Task Force. Majithia spent more than five months in Patiala jail and walked out of prison in August 2022 after the Punjab and Haryana High Court granted him bail.
