By Mata Press Service

Indian cops trying to unravel the tentacles of an international drug ring are set to grill a powerful minister from Punjab about his alleged connections to several Indo-Canadians.
The probe involves Punjab Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia, the movement of heroin and party drugs between Canada and India, money laundering and election rigging.
Majithia, who has denied all the allegations, was considered an “untouchable” by law enforcement authorities in India because of his familial connections to the Badal dynasty that rules Punjab. 
Dubbed ‘Majhe Da Jarnail’ or General of Majha region which encompasses the border region around the Sikh holy city of Amritsar, Majithia is the brother-in-law of Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab, Sukhbir Singh Badal. Badal’s father Prakash Singh is Punjab’s chief minister.
Among about 40 Indo-Canadians named in connection with the investigations by police and Indian media are; Satpreet Singh alias Satta, Amarinder Singh alias Laddi and Parminder Singh alias Pindi all from Edmonton and Dara Mothada, past president of Vancouver and Surrey-based sports club, Azaad Kabaddi B.C.
Others include Sarabjit Singh Nick a former kabaddi player from the Vancouver area, Harbans Sidhu of Toronto and Nirankara Singh Dhillon of Brampton.
None of the allegations have been proven and Mothada in a recent published interview has denied any connections to the drug trade saying: “I don’t do that... It’s all bullshit.”
Indian media said Laddi from Edmonton is also an accused in another drug racket case lodged at Fatehgarh Sahib, Punjab under First Information Report No. 45/3013.
Satta, Laddi and Pindi from Edmonton are alleged to have discussed the movement of pseudoephedrine at the 2009 wedding festivities of minister Majithia, which involved a security blanket of some 3,000 police officers on a 60-acre expanse of land.
The three are also said to have stayed at the minister’s house when in India, while Satta had also acted as minister Majithia’s election agent.
The entire case is rooted in the November 2013 arrest of Jagdish Singh alias Bhola, a dismissed Punjab Police deputy superintendent and an internationally renowned wrestler.
Bhola, who is now being held at India’s Nabha jail, was one of the most wanted fugitives operating the drug trafficking racket in India, which indulged in manufacturing and smuggling of pseudoephedrine, methamphetamine and heroin into Europe, US, Canada and other countries.
In addition to using non-resident Indians living in Canada, Bhola, police allege hired Chinese and Vietnamese nationals for making drugs and shipping consignments to North America.
At the time of his arrest police seized millions in drugs at his hideouts, 35 passports, including eight Canadian ones and a US-made visa imprint machine.
Bhola was arrested after another Indo-Canadian drug smuggler, Anoop Singh Kahlon detained in early 2013, allegedly fingered him as the kingpin of the international syndicate.
Police said, Kahlon, a truck driver, who attempted suicide in an Indian jail after his arrest had been in Canada with his family since 1995. He had built a strong network of drug peddlers not only in US and Canada but in some European countries. He is said to have used at least two Canadian-based Hawala operators (underground bankers) to move money.
The Kahlon group also had connections with a third network run by another Punjab drug baron with links to Canada.
That group led by Ranjit Singh alias Raja Kandola was operating a party-drug manufacturing operation in Punjab, real estate scams and an illegal immigration operation.
Kandola managed a drug empire worth millions of rupees using top models and good-looking young women fluent in English as couriers to send and receive drug-consignments.
As Indian police thread the links and look at possible connections to Majithia, Punjab’s influential revenue minister, the Directorate of Enforcement, a specialized investigation agency under India’s Ministry of Finance said last week that it will summon Majithia “within a short period” 
It has prepared a 25-page document entitled ‘Questionnaire for Bikram Singh Majithia’ which contains more than 50 questions pertaining to his personal affairs and business dealings.
This development was initiated after a nod from the “higher-ups in Delhi” in view of political sensitivity of the case. 
Enforcement Directorate (ED) officials, however, made it clear that mere summoning of the minister did not implicate him in any criminal wrongdoing.
The ED officials also want to know about the details of the minister’s relationship with the three Indo-Canadians from Edmonton – Satta, Laddi and Pind – who Bhola, the drug lord has testified as being ‘close associates’ of Majithia.
These three have already been booked by the Enforcement Directorate, according to Indian media.
Most questions on the first three pages of the ED questionnaire are about Majithia and his family’s bank accounts, business ventures, moveable and immovable properties. It also seeks copies of Majithia and his and wife’s passports.
Other questions to be posed to Majithia involve..
* the minister’s property and business ventures since 2007;
* details of properties owned in different states and overseas, by the minister and his family
*details of the stay of Satta, Laddi and Pindi, of Edmonton at his official residence in Chandigarh and his house in Amritsar
* details of foreign travels, including Canada and meetings with Satta and Pindi
* and details on Satta’s involvement as his election agent in 2007 Punjab assembly polls.
As Indian sleuths unravel the operations of this complex syndicate, Punjab deputy chief minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, the brother-in-law of minister Majithia has announced a war on drugs in his state.
Badal said nearly 20,000 people associated with the drugs trade have been arrested in Punjab in the last year and drug seizures have run into the millions.
“We are fighting a national war. Punjab does not produce drugs. We are a transit point for drugs in India and the rest of the world. The drugs come from the Pakistan-Afghanistan side. We are fighting against this transit war. Since we are in this war, we catch them (drug traffickers),” Badal said in a published interview.
Critics said that Badal was trying to deflect attention from his brother-in-law and accusations of corruption from other political entities, which have put immense pressure on his ruling Shiromani Akali Dal party.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police in an analytical report say drug seizures originating in India have increased dramatically becoming the number one source/transit country to Canada.
India has also emerged as a source country for ketamine and other party drugs smuggled into Canada.
The RCMP report also identified Indo-Canadian criminal groups as high-level transporters of synthetic drugs and precursor chemicals from Canada to the U.S.
With an annual turnover of around US$500 billion dollars, drug trafficking is the third largest business in the world, next only to petroleum and arms trade.
Narcotics agencies say India, wedged between two major drug-producing regions, the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent, is a major transit point for drug smuggling to the West where returns are lucrative.