A Punjab Police special investigation team (SIT), probing a 2021 drug case, has summoned senior Akali leader and former minister Bikram Singh Majithia and dismissed cop Jagdish Bhola to appear before it on October 5, people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Majithia, it is learnt, has appeared before the SITs more than 12 times. (HT)

The SIT may question both Majithia and Bhola face-to-face for the first time in the case. Bhola, a wrestler-turned-cop, was arrested by Punjab Police in November 2013 in connection with the drug racket. In 2014, Bhola had named Majithia in the drug racket, a charge vehemently denied by the senior Akali leader.

The Enforcement Directorate later had also investigated the case under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act. Then ED deputy director, Niranjan Singh, had questioned Majithia in 2014 in connection with the case when he was the minister in the Akali government.

Majithia was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act on December 20, 2021, when the then chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government was in power.

The action was taken on the basis of a 2018 report prepared by then head of the special task force (STF) against drugs, Harpreet Singh Sidhu. The STF report was based on “confessional statements given by some accused, including Jagjit Singh Chahal, Jagdish Singh Bhola and Maninder Singh Aulakh, of the 2013 multi-crore drug racket case, given to the ED.

According to the 49-page FIR registered at the State Crime Police Station in Mohali, Majithia has been booked for cognisable offences under Sections 25 (punishment for allowing premises, etc. to be used for commission of an offence), 27A (financing activities involving production, manufacture, possession, sale, purchase, transportation, use or consumption, import and export or dealing in any activities pertaining to narcotic drugs) and 29 (party to a criminal conspiracy to commit an offence) of the NDPS Act. Majithia and Bhola are out on bail in the case.

Five SITs but no chargesheet yet

The case has so far seen five SITs, with the Aam Aadmi Party government constituting two of them. The probe teams, however, have so far failed to make any substantial headway in the high-profile case. No chargesheet has been filed in the case despite one of the SITs claiming to have found “clinching evidence” against Majithia.

On August 18, 2023, the Punjab Police had obtained a ‘Blue Corner’ Notice from Interpol against Satpreet Singh Thiara, also known as Satta, a Canada-based NRI, in connection with the ongoing 2021 drug case. Satta, originally a native of village Banga in Nawanshahr, was nominated as a co-accused in the NDPS Act case registered against Majithia in 2021.

Majithia, it is learnt, has appeared before the SITs more than 12 times.

The DIG Harcharan Bhullar-led SIT had claimed in a press conference that it had found suspicious transactions in firms linked to Majithia and his family. After the Mann government took over in 2022, it replaced AIG Balraj with IG Rahul S. as SIT head. In May 2023, IGP (Patiala Range) MS Chhina was made the SIT head and promoted to the rank of ADGP. In January 2024, the government set up another SIT under DIG Bhullar. Then IPS officer Varun Sharma took over as SIT head in March 2025.