Harsimrat K Badal urges HM Amit Shah to order a CBI probe into the gruesome murder of Parvinder S Jhota

Harsimrat K Badal urges HM Amit Shah to order a CBI probe into the gruesome murder of Parvinder S Jhota

(Also calls for a comprehensive probe into the politician-police drug trade nexus in Punjab)

Chandigarh 19 October ( Ranjeet Singh Dhaliwal ) : Senior Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader Harsimrat Kaur Badal today urged union home minister Amit Shah to order a CBI probe into the gruesome daylight murder of anti-drug crusader Parvinder Singh Jhota besides calling for a comprehensive investigation into the politician-police drug trade nexus in Punjab. In a letter to the home minister, the Bathinda MP highlighted how the slain anti- drug crusader’s father – Bhim Singh had given a statement to the police which was not being acted upon and demanded that all facets of the bereaved father’s statement be probed by the CBI.

Harsimrat Badal said Bhim Singh had asserted in his statement that his son Parvinder Jhota had fallen victim to the politician – police nexus behind the drug trade in Punjab and how this nexus was receiving patronage from the very top, including chief minister Bhagwant Mann and State DGP Gaurav Yadav. She said Bhim Singh had also mentioned that his son had informed the Mansa DSP before proceeding to the medical store of Ashwini Kumar who shot him in cold blood. She said this coupled with the fact that Ashwini talked at length with someone before shooting Parvinder Jhota pointed to a wider conspiracy behind this gruesome act.

The MP said Bhim Singh had recounted the entire journey of his son starting from how he exposed the 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. “Bhim Singh specifically mentioned that the State DGP and the Mansa SSP were behind these false cases”. Mrs Badal said the bereaved father also mentioned that when his son was in jail, the Mansa SSP told him that in case 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 had also got entrenched in the drug trade and that the Mansa DSP – Sanjeev Goyal even owned medical drug manufacturing facilities which were used to produce intoxicants.

Badal also disclosed how Bhim Singh had disclosed that the local drug Inspector in Mansa – Shisham Mittal was also in cahoots with the drug mafia and did not take requisite exemplary action against the medical stores. “He also accused then DSP Sanjeev Goyal and former SSP Nanak Singh of shielding the drug offenders besides asserting that present sub division DSP Harjinder Singh Gill and SHO Beyant Kaur were directly responsible for this son’s murder”.

The Bathinda MP also told the home minister that civil society was not only disturbed by the gruesome murder but also the fact that it could have been executed under a well laid out plan. She said besides the delay by the police to reach the medical store on the fateful day and the conversation of the accused with someone on the phone before shooting Jhota, there was also the issue of grant of weapon license to Ashwini Kumar by the Mansa SSP in 2024, months after he was released from jail for selling psychotropic drugs illegally.

Besides calling for a CBI probe to unmask all the perpetrators behind the murder of Parvinder Jhota be it drug inspectors, police officials or top-ranking politicians, Mrs Badal also called for a comprehensive probe into the politician-police drug trade nexus in Punjab. She said the probe besides taking up the role of drug inspectors in drug trafficking should also probe how the police force was being used to suppress anti-drug activists.

She said this probe should include the case of Mohanjit Singh Sheron of Sunam who was tortured for indulging in a democratic protest in 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 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. Only a comprehensive probe into the entire drug racket in Punjab under the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government can expose these messengers of death and provide relief to Punjabis from this scourge which is threatening to consume an entire generation”, Badal added.