New Delhi/ Chandigarh: The Enforcement Directorate has issued summons to Punjab government’s revenue minister Bikram Singh Majithia to probe the money-laundering angle in the Bhola drug racket case.

In a set-back to the SAD-BJP government in Punjab, the ED has asked Mr Majithia to appear before it next week in the RS 6,000-crore international synthetic drug case, according to reports. While Mr Majithia said he would cooperate with the investigations, Congress, which is the principal opposition in the state, reacted by saying its stand has been vindicated.

The summons have come at a time when the ties between SAD-BJP are said to be souring. Mr Majithia is the younger brother of Harsimrat Kaur Badal, who is a minister in Union Cabinet and also the daughter-in-law of CM Parkash Singh Badal.

Majithia’s name first surfaced in the case when Jagdish Singh Bhola, a dismissed DSP, claimed that the leader had assisted him in procuring synthetic chemicals and precursors from owners of pharmaceutical units in Punjab.