After being reprimanded by the Punjab and Haryana High Court for inaction in the synthetic drugs case, the Punjab government is now under attack from the Aam Aadmi Party.

AAP leader Raghav Chadha has now accused Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi of striking a secret deal with the Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Badal to save Bikram Majithia.

ALSO READ | SAD leaders court arrest, accuse Congress of bid to implicate Majithia in false drug case

Raghav Chadha said that after the court’s rap, the Punjab government is in a hurry and that it may take action against the people mentioned in the sealed STF report filed in 2018.

Though the contents of this report were never made public, some reports, besides Congress leader Navjot Singh Sidhu, had claimed that the report mentioned the name of Akali Dal leader Bikram Majithia. The report was based on the statements by three synthetic drug smuggling accused, out of whom two were convicted and one was acquitted in 2019.

Addressing mediapersons in Chandigarh on Wednesday, Raghav Chadha accused Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi of “having a secret meeting with Sukhbir Singh Badal at a farmhouse and having struck a deal to save Majithia.

“As per the deal, police would arrest Bikram Singh Majithia and release him the next day,” Raghav Chadha said while claiming that his claim was based on the information provided by a senior police officer.

Raghav Chadha also said that the recent actions against the businesses owned by Shiromani Akali Dal leaders were also merely “eyewash”.

Interestingly, Shiromani Akali Dal leader Daljit Cheema had also claimed that the Punjab chief minister, along with the police officers was hatching a conspiracy to arrest Bikram Majithia.

Bikram Majithia had earlier moved a petition in the court, urging that he be treated as a party in the synthetic drugs case. However, his request was not accepted. Akali Dal then accused the chief minister of hatching a conspiracy to arrest Bikram Majithia.

Majithia’s advocate had also claimed that the Enforcement Directorate and the Punjab Police STF did not find any evidence against the Akali Dal leader.

ALSO READ | SAD accuses Cong of trying to implicate its leaders in false drug case

Sources said that the ADGP, who headed the STF in 2018, in his report had recommended that the allegations made by one of the accused (now a convict) against the politician need to be investigated further.

Meanwhile, Congress leaders have refuted the allegations levelled by the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Aam Aadmi Party.

“The law will take its own course. The allegations being levelled against the Punjab government are baseless,” senior Congress leader and Minister of the Department of New and Renewable Energy Sources Raj Kumar Verka said.