Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia on January 12 appeared before the special investigation team (SIT) probing the drugs case registered against him.
The move comes two days after Mr. Majithia was granted anticipatory bail by the high court in the matter.
“I have come here before 11 a.m. to appear before the SIT,” Mr. Majithia told reporters outside the State Crime Branch at Mohali.
Mr. Majithia’s counsel Damanbir Singh Sobti said the former Minister was ready to assist in every possible investigation.
“He today joined the investigation,” said Mr. Sobti.
The Punjab and Haryana High Court on January 10 had directed the SAD leader to join the investigation on January 12 at 11 a.m. while granting him anticipatory bail in the matter.
The former Punjab Minister was also asked not to leave the country till the next date of hearing and was further asked to share with the investigating agency his live location through WhatsApp.
Mr. Majithia (46), who was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (NDPS) Act last month, had moved the high court seeking anticipatory bail after a Mohali court dismissed his pre-arrest bail plea on December 24.
Mr. Majithia, who made his first public appearance on January 11 after registration of the NDPS case against him last month, had accused Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi and Deputy CM Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa of hatching a conspiracy against him.
Mr. Majithia had also dubbed registration of the case against him as “political vendetta”.
The former Punjab Minister was booked on December 20 last year under the NDPS Act on the basis of a 2018 report of a probe into a drugs racket operating in the State.
The report was filed by anti-drug special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu in the Punjab and Haryana High Court in 2018.
The 49-page FIR in the matter was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.
