Harsimrat Kaur writes to HM Shah, demands CBI probe into anti-drug activist’s murder
Chandigarh: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) MP Harsimrat Kaur on Monday wrote to Home Minister Amit Shah demanding a CBI probe into the murder of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota as well as a comprehensive investigation into the politician-police-drug mafia nexus in the State.
This comes a day before the Home Minister’s visit to Punjab on October 20.
In the letter, Kaur highlighted the gruesome daylight murder of Jhota, who, she said, was “widely known to have actively campaigned against the menace of drugs and against illegal sale of controlled pharmaceutical substances and synthetic drugs in the region”.
“As you are aware, Parvinder Singh Jhota was killed in broad daylight when he left home after informing the Mansa DSP and asking him to reach a chemist shop where drugs were being sold. Despite being informed by Parvinder Singh, the police did not reach there, following which the latter started streaming the case of sale of psychotropic drugs by the medical store owner, Ashwini Kumar. Following this, Ashwini shot and killed Parvinder Jhota and injured two others after talking to someone on the phone,” the SAD MP mentioned in her letter.
She mentioned that after the murder, Jhota’s father, Bhim Singh, submitted a formal statement to the police highlighting how his son was a “victim of the politician–police-drug mafia nexus” behind the drug trade in Punjab and how this “nexus was receiving patronage from the very top, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann”.
“Sir, the aggrieved father recounted the entire journey of his son, starting from how he exposed drug trade being done from medical stores in Mansa and how he was arrested and jailed for the same after being implicated in false cases. Jhota’s father Bhim Singh specifically mentioned that the State DGP and the Mansa SSP were behind these false cases,” Kaur said in the letter.
“This was not all. S. Bhim Singh in his statement has said that when his son was in jail, the Mansa SSP threatened him that if he still continued to raise his voice against the drug trade, he would be eliminated. Bhim Singh also mentioned in his statement that police officers were also entrenched in the drug trade and that the Mansa DSP, Shri Sanjeev Goyal, even owned medical drug manufacturing facilities which were used to produce intoxicants,” she said.
She further stated that Bhim Singh mentioned how the local drug Inspector in Mansa, Shisham Mittal, was in “cahoots with the drug mafia” and did not take action against the medical stores.
“He mentioned the names of then DSP Sanjeev Goyal and then SSP Nanak Singh for shielding drug offenders, besides accusing present sub-division DSP Harjinder Singh Gill and SHO Beant Kaur for being directly responsible for his son’s murder,” the SAD leader said in the letter.
“Sir, civil society is not only disturbed by the gruesome murder but also the fact that that it has been executed under a well-laid-out plan,” she said.
Kaur highlighted that Ashwini Kumar was accused of selling controlled psychotropic drugs several times and had also been jailed for some time but was able to acquire a weapon license which was approved by the then Mansa SSP in 2024, a few months after he was released from jail.
“All this indicates that Ashwini had very powerful godfathers. Only a high-level independent and impartial investigation can unmask these influential persons, be it the drug inspectors, police officials or top-ranking politicians. A CBI probe is necessary to expose all the perpetrators behind Jhota’s murder,” she said.
“The probe, besides covering this case, may also take up the role of drug inspectors in drug trafficking, besides going into all recent cases in which the police force has been used to suppress anti-drug activists,” she said.
The SAD MP highlighted the case of Mohanjit Singh of Sunam, who was “tortured for indulging in a democratic protest at a function addressed by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann against the sale of ‘chitta’ (synthetic drugs)” and the suicide of Gulzar Singh following “police persecution after he questioned Finance Minister S. Harpal Cheema as to why ‘chitta’ was being sold openly”.
“There are numerous other cases of whistleblowers being forced into silence even as drug traffickers have a field day in Punjab,” she mentioned.
According to Kaur, only a comprehensive probe into the entire drug racket in AAP-led Punjab “can expose these messengers of death and provide relief to Punjabis from this scourge which is threatening to consume an entire generation”.