Sukhbir S Badal challenges CM to prove Saraya Industries had received even one rupee in foreign funding from 2007 to present time.

Sukhbir S Badal challenges CM to prove Saraya Industries had received even one rupee in foreign funding from 2007 to present time.

(Says Bhagwant Mann pressurized the DGP to register case against Bikram S Majithia because he was constantly exposing the CM and corrupt and immoral deeds of his ministers)

(Asserts SAD would hold Bhagwant Mann and officers accountable for corrupt and illegal practices once SAD forms a govt in the State)

Chandigarh 28 June ( Ranjeet Singh Dhaliwal ) : Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) president Sukhbir Singh Badal today challenged chief minister Bhagwant Mann to prove that Saraya Industries Limited, in which senior party leader Bikram Singh Majithia had an inherited share of eleven per cent, had received even one rupee in foreign funding from 2007 to the present time while rubbishing the allegations made in the Disproportionate Assets case registered against the Akali leader. Addressing a press conference here,  Sukhbir Badal said “the only foreign funding received by Saraya Industries was in March,2006 (one year before SAD formed government in the State) when it received Rs 35 crore from United States based Clearwater Corporation in exchange for 25 per cent shares in the company. Majithia entered politics only in 2007”. He also asserted that Clearwater Corporation, which had offices in several countries, had invested Rs 50,000 crore globally. “All money invested by this company through the NBFC in Saraya Industries was done after due clearance from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and approval of the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB)”. Sukhbir Badal also made it clear that all transactions of Saraya Industries were scrutinized and accepted by the Income Tax department. “This clearly proves that claims of an investment of Rs 540 crore into Saraya Industries through foreign funding are absurd and malicious and being done with the sole purpose of defaming Majithia”. He also clarified that all cash transactions done by Saraya Industries while procuring sugarcane and conducting distillery business had also been scrutinized by the Income Tax department. He also stated that Saraya Industries Ltd was a private limited company deemed to be a public limited company and was a different entity from Bikram Majithia and could not be associated with the latter. “Majithia has no control over the company’s day to day functioning”. Asserting that chief minister Bhagwant Mann had pressurized the State DGP to register a case against Majithia because the latter was constantly exposing him and his corrupt and immoral cabinet colleagues, the SAD president said “the chief minister rang up the DGP on the night of June 24 and threatened to remove him in case he did not register a case against Majithia by the morning. Consequently the DGP wrote to the Vigilance department to register a case against the Akali leader at 10.40 pm the same night. Subsequently a Disproportionate Assets case was registered against Majithia at 4.40 am on June 25”. Badal maintained that no investigation had been done before registering the case. “The Vigilance department did not deem it fit to issue a questionnaire to Majithia which is a prerequisite before filing such a case”. He said an affidavit which the government had submitted to the Supreme Court in 2023 while appealing for cancellation of the regular bail given to Majithia and seeking his custodial interrogation in an NDPS Act was used verbatim to register this new case against him. “This was done despite the fact that the Supreme Court rejected the affidavit in April this year and refused to overturn the regular bail given to Majithia by the high court or grant the request for custodial interrogation. The apex court even asked the AAP government to complete the probe in two days following which it has now taken this new route to engage in political vendetta”. The SAD president also condemned the manner in which retired officers were being used by the AAP government to defame Majithia. “Former DGP S Chattopadhyay is the same person who earlier registered a Disproportionate Assets case against former chief minister Parkash Singh Badal and him and even travelled to several countries on government expense to find evidence of foreign properties owned by the Badal family. The entire case fell flat due to lack of any evidence”. He said retired Enforcement Director Niranjan Singh was being involved but the Enforcement Directorate, which had given a clean chit to Majithia, was being kept out of the ambit of the case. Terming the entire case as illegal and a willful fabrication, Badal said “we will go to the people and expose the AAP government”. He also made it clear that the party had conclusive proof of the corrupt acts of Bhagwant Mann and his wife Dr Gurpreet Kaur as well as Patiala SSP Varun Sharma who was handling all the illegal transactions for them and would hold them accountable for the same once the SAD formed a government in the State. He also questioned the formation of five SITs to probe the NDPS case allegations against Majithia, adding the present SIT head - Varun Sharma was compromised due to his business links with the chief minister’s family. He said similarly another SIT member – Gurbans Singh Bains had been dismissed from service for five years on corruption charges.“The truth is the AAP government failed to find any drugs in the NDPS case and has now has failed to find any illegal assets in the Disproportionate Assets case”, Badal added.