Home Minister welcomes CM Mann’s move on the Parvinder Singh Jhota case and presses for two more probes to be transferred
Ludhiana, October 20: Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Tuesday attacked Punjab’s Aam Aadmi Party government over the state’s drug crisis. He urged it to hand over to the CBI the investigations into the deaths of activists and others who had stood up against drug trafficking.
Shah was on a day-long visit to Punjab, where he met the families of those killed in incidents linked to their opposition to the drug trade in their areas.
At a press conference in Ludhiana, Shah welcomed Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s decision to transfer the probe into the murder of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota to the central agency. He asked the state to do the same in two other cases: the death of a Dalit man in Sangrur and that of Bikramjit Singh in Gurdaspur. Citing the families’ demands for a CBI inquiry, Shah told the state government it would not be able to solve these cases either and should hand them over. He promised that no accused would be spared, however powerful.
Drug abuse has long been one of Punjab’s most pressing social and political issues. The Mann government has run a high-profile anti-drug campaign, “Yudh Nashian Virudh”, since 2025. With Assembly elections due in early 2027, the issue is set to be a key battleground between the AAP and the BJP.
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