CBI Team Reaches Punjab’s Mansa to Take Over Probe into Anti-Drug Activist Jhota’s Murder
A team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrived in Mansa, Punjab, to take over the investigation into the murder of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota. The development comes a day after Union Home Minister Amit Shah criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government over the state’s drug crisis.
According to people familiar with the matter, a Deputy Inspector General (DIG) is leading the CBI team, which first visited the Mansa police station. The agency has written to the Punjab Police seeking the transfer of the investigation and all related documents and materials.
As part of the probe, the CBI is expected to record statements from Jhota’s family at the Mansa Circuit House. An official said the family’s statements would form an important part of the ongoing investigation. Forensic experts, drug control officials and other specialists are also expected to arrive in Mansa to assist the investigation.
On Tuesday, Shah urged the Punjab government to transfer two more cases involving the deaths of men who had allegedly opposed the drug trade to the CBI. The cases concern Gulzar Singh of Sangrur and Bikramjit Singh of Gurdaspur. Shah welcomed Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s decision to hand over the investigation into Jhota’s murder to the central agency.
During his day-long visit to Punjab to meet the families of the three men, Shah said the state government would not be able to solve the other two cases. Citing the families’ demand for a CBI investigation, he stressed that no accused would be spared, irrespective of their influence or position.
Mann announced the transfer of Jhota’s murder case to the CBI just hours before Shah arrived in Punjab, accepting the demand made by the activist’s family. The Chief Minister maintained that the government was committed to an all-out fight against drug peddlers.
Jhota was allegedly shot dead by a pharmacy owner in Mansa on October 13. He had been campaigning against the illegal sale of addictive medicines at chemist shops.
Shah alleged that people who speak out against drugs in Punjab are either murdered or driven to suicide.
This was Shah’s second visit to Punjab in three weeks. Assembly elections are due in the state early next year, and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made the drug trade a central issue in its campaign.
Last month, BJP president Nitin Nabin launched the party’s ‘Nasha Mukt Punjab Yatra’, which travelled across the state before concluding in Jalandhar. Addressing a rally there, Shah pledged that if the BJP came to power, it would free Punjab from heroin by December 2029.
In response, Mann and cabinet ministers Harpal Singh Cheema and Aman Arora criticised the Central government and questioned its action against synthetic drugs and the illegal trade in pharmaceutical medicines.
Mann alleged that the BJP had failed to win the confidence of Punjab’s people and was looking for excuses to defame his government.
During Tuesday’s visit, Shah began his tour in Batala, where he met the family of 40-year-old Bikramjit Singh, who was killed on October 15 in an incident allegedly linked to his opposition to drug peddling.
Shah then travelled to Sangrur to meet the family of Gulzar Singh, a Dalit daily-wage labourer who died by suicide on September 7. Reports said his death followed alleged harassment and casteist remarks after he publicly questioned Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema about the illegal sale of drugs in the area during a public event.
The CBI’s investigation into Jhota’s murder is expected to examine the available evidence and establish the circumstances surrounding the killing. The demands for a central investigation into the other two deaths have also brought the issue of drug-related violence and the state’s response to the crisis into sharper political focus.
