Chandigarh (Gurpreet Singh): The Aam Aadmi Party has urged the Special Investigation Team examining illicit narcotics networks in Punjab to conduct a direct, face-to-face interrogation of Shiromani Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia alongside convicted former police official Jagdish Singh Bhola. Addressing a press conference in Chandigarh on Wednesday, AAP Punjab chief spokesperson and legislator Kuldeep Singh Dhaliwal maintained that confronting both figures simultaneously is essential to unravel every facet of the illicit syndicate and establish comprehensive accountability without offering preferential treatment to any individual.
Dhaliwal asserted that the previous Akali-BJP administration between 2007 and 2017 allowed the narcotics trade to proliferate across the state, claiming that key political figures played a central role in destabilizing Punjabi youth. Rebutting accusations of political vendetta levelled by the Shiromani Akali Dal following the SIT’s recent summons to Majithia, the spokesperson countered that Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s governance campaign, titled Yudh Nashean Virudh, is driven purely by the objective of building a drug-free province. He added that the ongoing probe follows transparent legal procedures, emphasizing that thousands of traffickers have already been incarcerated and that accountability will apply equally to influential politicians and disgraced police officers, including dismissed Assistant Inspector General Rajjit Singh.
Turning his criticism toward the federal government and the Bharatiya Janata Party, Dhaliwal demanded that central leaders account for extensive drug consignments entering India through maritime ports in BJP-governed Gujarat before challenging Punjab on enforcement. He challenged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to initiate federal anti-drug programmes directly from Gujarat ports, arguing that massive quantities of contraband are transported inland from western maritime entry points toward other regions, including northern states.
The legislator also underscored the national government’s statutory obligations regarding border surveillance, noting that Punjab borders a 532-kilometre international boundary where a 50-kilometre territorial belt falls under the jurisdiction of the Border Security Force. Pointing to the escalating use of unmanned aerial drones to smuggle weapons and narcotics across the border from Pakistan, Dhaliwal accused the Centre of evading repeated requests from Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to deploy comprehensive anti-drone defence systems and securely seal the frontier. Reaffirming the state administration’s commitment to enforcement, Dhaliwal maintained that legal actions against anyone involved in drug trafficking will proceed without compromise.
