The Union Home Ministry has issued a lookout circular against former Punjab minister and senior Akali Dal leader Bikram Singh Majithia who was booked under the anti-drug trafficking NDPS Act by the state police. The lookout circular, which prevents a person from leaving the country, was issued on the request of the Punjab police.

The Bureau of Immigration under the Home Ministry sent the copy of the notice to Punjab's Additional Director General of Police (Counter Intelligence), Internal Security in Mohali.

"This LOC shall remain in force until and unless a deletion request is received by BOI from the originator itself, it read.

The state police have been looking for the Shiromani Akali Dal leader to arrest him.

On Monday, Majithia, 46, was booked under the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act on the basis of a 2018 status report of probe into a drug racket.

The report was filed by the anti-drug special task force (STF) chief Harpreet Singh Sidhu with the Punjab and Haryana High Court that year.

The Congress government's move ahead of the assembly elections early next year has provoked accusations of political vendetta by the Akali Dal.

Punjab Congress chief Navjot Singh Sidhu had been urging action by the Charanjit Singh Channi government against Majithia, who is the brother-in-law of SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal and brother of former Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Majithia had earlier denied all charges against him.

The 49-page FIR was registered by the state Crime Branch at its Mohali police station.

The NDPS sections mentioned in the FIR include 25 (punishment for allowing one's premises for the commission of an offence), 27A (punishment for financing illicit traffic and harbouring offenders) and 29 (punishment for abetting or plotting an offence).

The FIR noted that the legal opinion of Punjab's advocate general too was taken before registering it.