Heroin accused AAP worker walked free as police missed challan deadline, alleges Bikram Majithia

Chandigarh. An AAP worker who held a post in the Punjab government’s Yudh Nashian Virudh anti-drug campaign is out on default bail in a heroin case because the police never filed a chargesheet against him, Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Bikram Singh Majithia alleged on Monday.

Majithia said this showed the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government was “being bankrolled by drug money”. He claimed the accused, Lovepreet Singh, had close links with chief minister Bhagwant Mann and senior AAP leader Manish Sisodia, and had even shared the stage with the CM.

Addressing a press conference here, Majithia said Lovepreet was arrested on March 18 this year with 8 kg of heroin, worth about ₹80 crore in the international market. He alleged the police then came under “intense pressure” to show the recovery as 4.5 kg, and that this started an operation to get him out of jail.

“First, the SHO who arrested Lovepreet was transferred. Then the SSP delayed filing the challan,” he said.

Under the NDPS Act, police get 180 days to file a chargesheet in cases involving large quantities of drugs. If they miss the deadline, the accused is entitled to bail by default. Majithia alleged the police deliberately sought more time just three days before the 180 days ran out.

“Those three days were holidays, so the extension could not be granted, and Lovepreet got default bail,” he said.

When the court questioned the prosecution about the delay, it blamed a pending forensic science laboratory (FSL) report, Majithia said. “Incidentally, the FSL also comes under the home minister,” he added, in a dig at Mann, who holds the home portfolio.

The SAD leader alleged the same pattern was being repeated across Punjab. “Watertight cases like the one against Lovepreet are being diluted, and crores of rupees are being passed on to the AAP leadership for this,” he said, claiming this was why the drug trade in the state was growing.

The Mann government has been demolishing properties of alleged drug traffickers under its Yudh Nashian Virudh campaign. Majithia said the bulldozers were missing where they were needed most, claiming Lovepreet’s properties had not been seized because he was the chief minister’s “blue-eyed boy”.

“In direct contrast, the police plant drugs on their opponents and then arrest them, as happened in Khanna, which was also caught on camera,” he said.