Mann says Punjab is 'defamed' over drugs as Centre seeks reports on Jhota killing

Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann told his police officers on Friday that the state had been unfairly painted as the home of India’s drug problem, and that the Centre was blaming Punjab for failures on its own watch.

“Nasha hai nahi etthe, badnaam hi zyada kita hoyea,” Mann said in Punjabi at the Punjab Police Academy in Phillaur: the drugs are not here, the state has only been defamed more. “Today, the Centre is questioning us,” he said.

Within hours, the Union Home Ministry wrote to Chief Secretary K A P Sinha asking for detailed reports on three drug-linked cases, among them the killing of the anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa on Tuesday.

A review called before the killing

The day-long meeting brought senior superintendents of police, deputy commissioners, sub-divisional magistrates and deputy superintendents from every district under one roof to review the government’s “Yudh Nashiyan Virudh” campaign. It was announced before Jhota was shot, but the killing and Thursday’s statewide bandh hung over it.

Mann said the 50-km belt along the border was under the Border Security Force and therefore the Centre. “Drugs weighing 3,000 kg are seized at Gujarat’s Kandla port, which also falls under your jurisdiction,” he said. “We have our own anti-drone system, for which the Centre has not given us even a penny, yet you blame us.” He said Punjab was blamed for stubble fires in the same way, though Haryana, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh had them too.

On Mansa, he promised action. “The Mansa incident is unfortunate. There will be strict action against the accused in the case,” he said. “Whoever is involved in the conspiracy behind the murder, they will also be strictly punished.” He also said that “amidst the action against drugs, some activists will also face difficulties”.

He told the officers that addicts should be treated as patients, “but breaking supply chain is our biggest task”, and asked them to deliver justice “without fear, terror or any recommendations”, as in the kingdom of Maharaja Ranjit Singh.

Three letters from Delhi

Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said on X that the Centre would seek answers from the state on Jhota’s death and on the death of Gulzar Singh. The ministry’s letters followed on Friday evening.

On Jhota, it asked the state “to furnish a comprehensive factual report regarding the incident” and the steps taken. Gulzar Singh, the father of a young man dependent on drugs, died by suicide on 8 September in Sangrur district. The ministry said he had questioned the supply of synthetic drugs in his area and made allegations against a Punjab minister, and had faced pressure from his village panchayat.

The third case is an attack on Thursday night at Mari Panwan village in Gurdaspur’s Batala tehsil, in which Bikramjit Singh was killed and Nishan Singh and Gurmukh Singh were critically injured. “It has been alleged that these attacks are related to narcotic drugs,” the ministry wrote. It also asked what the state had done on the Vision Document on Narcotics Control (2026-2029), which Shah sent to Mann on 10 August.

Still no cremation in Mansa

In Mansa, Jhota’s family and supporters sat in protest for a fourth day. His body remains at the civil hospital. His father, Bhim Singh, says the family will take it only when its demands are met, including the resignations of Mann and Director General of Police Gaurav Yadav and a CBI inquiry. Several rounds of talks with district officials have failed.

The accused chemist, Ashwani Kumar, is in police custody, and his wife, Neelam Rani, is under arrest. The action committee leading the agitation plans to protest outside the homes and offices of AAP legislators and ministers across Punjab on 19 October.