Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday questioned the Congress government for not arresting a member of the Badal family and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia, in a drug case.

Senior AAP leader and Leader of the Opposition, Harpal Singh Cheema, said in the newspapers Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Congress president Navjot Singh Sidhu were promoting the first information report (FIR) against Majithia as if they had won the Trojan war. “Channi and Sidhu should clarify whether their action in the drug mafia case was limited to just an FIR and few statements?” he said.

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Cheema questioned the poor performance of the Congress government against the drug mafia. “Majithia vanished beyond the police or government radar. How and where can he take refuge? Police including cyber cell would fail to track him ?. It would not be possible without government protection,” the AAP leader said.

“We have been saying from day one that the FIR against Majithia was just a political ploy by the Congress government for their own political gains by fooling the people about their intentions regarding drug mafia in the state,” he added.

The Leader of the Opposition condemned the Congress government and its leaders, for beating the drum after just one FIR saying, “Captain Amarinder Singh, Congress, including the BJP at the Centre, are patronising these big drug lords. They are advertising it as if they have won the whole war against drugs even though they have not been able to arrest Majithia yet and drugs rackets are still working non-stop,” he said.

Punjab Police had on 21 December booked former minister and senior Shiromani Akali Dal leader Majithia in a drug case for allegedly knowingly allowing drug smuggling through the use of his property or conveyance, financing the distribution or sale of drugs and hatching a criminal conspiracy for smuggling.

The case against Majithia, brother-in-law of SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of Badal’s wife Harsimrat Kaur who is former Union minister, was registered under various sections of the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act.

While the SAD termed the case, registered days before the election code of conduct will come into force for the Punjab Assembly polls slated for early next year, as an act of vendetta politics, Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu said it was the first step against the drug mafia.