CHANDIGARH: Former Enforcement Directorate deputy director Niranjan Singh will join the Akali Dal Waris Punjab De ahead of the Punjab assembly elections, party sources said on Tuesday.A formal announcement on his joining will be made on Wednesday, they said, news agency PTI reported.Singh decided to join the party after MLA Manpreet Singh Ayali and Tarsem Singh, the father of jailed Khadoor Sahib MP Amritpal Singh, met him at his Jalandhar residence, sources said.Talking about the reasons behind his decision, Singh said the menace of drugs, which had destroyed the lives of youths, could not be wiped out despite repeated promises from successive governments.He also said the law-and-order situation and corruption in the state were matters of concern.Singh, who retired from government service in May 2021, had probed several high-profile drug cases, including the multi-crore Jagdish Bhola drug racket case, PTI reported.He had questioned senior politicians, including former ministers Bikram Singh Majithia and Sarwan Singh Phillaur, in connection with the case, which he probed under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.Singh was later transferred from Jalandhar to Kolkata, though his transfer was revoked by the Punjab and Haryana high court.After his retirement in May 2021, Singh remained vocal about Punjab’s drug problem.Akali Dal Waris Punjab De is led by MP Amritpal Singh, who is currently lodged in a jail in Assam in the 2023 Ajnala police station attack case.Punjab will go to polls early next year.(With agency inputs)
