Punjab's fight against drugs cannot be left to citizens with cameras, or men with guns

On Tuesday morning Parvinder Singh Jhota walked into a chemist’s shop in Mansa with a phone held up to film, and accused the owner of selling drugs to an elderly man. About four minutes later the shopkeeper fired. Jhota, 45, was hit three times and died. Four of his companions were wounded. The man accused of shooting him, Ashwani Kumar, was still being hunted when last reported. A man accused of helping him escape has been arrested.

Nothing about the argument in that shop justifies what followed. A killing is a killing, and it must be answered by the full weight of the law: an arrest, a charge sheet that holds up, and a trial that does not drag on for years.

Two failures, not one

But the case also shows how Punjab’s fight against drugs has gone wrong.

Jhota and Ashwani had history. In July 2023 Jhota’s supporters paraded the chemist through a market with a garland of shoes, accusing him of selling banned capsules. The police booked Ashwani on Jhota’s complaint, and then booked Jhota for taking the law into his own hands. Three years later, the shopkeeper still had his shop and, according to the police, a licensed weapon. Whatever became of the 2023 case, it did not settle anything. It left two men who saw each other as enemies, and a town that believed nothing had been done.

That belief is the root of the problem. Jhota built a following across the Malwa belt because many families felt the police would not act against people selling drugs in their own streets. Punjab Police say otherwise. Their campaign against drugs has, by their count, led to 79,784 arrests and 60,582 cases since March 2025. Those numbers are large. Yet a chemist accused of selling pharmacy drugs for misuse could keep trading for years, and a citizen with a camera felt he had to confront him in person.

The other side’s case

Many in Mansa saw Jhota as a hero, and his family’s grief is real. Activists like him have kept the issue alive when politicians found it easier to look away. It is understandable that his supporters have called a bandh and want a CBI inquiry.

But public shaming, livestreamed confrontations and crowds breaking into a shop, as happened in Mansa on Tuesday, are not a substitute for policing. They put the accused, the accusers and bystanders at risk, and they make convictions harder, not easier. A state that tolerates vigilante enforcement because it is popular will soon find it cannot control it.

What Punjab should do

First, catch and try the accused quickly, with the investigation kept away from political point-scoring. The BJP, the Congress and the ruling AAP all have a stake in Punjab’s 2027 election. None of them should treat this death as campaign material.

Second, the Chief Minister’s review at Phillaur on Friday should look hard at pharmacies. The trade in prescription drugs sold for misuse needs regular audits of chemists’ stock and sales records by drug controllers, with licences cancelled when the records do not add up.

Third, citizens should have a safe and answerable way to report drug sales: a channel that protects the complainant’s identity, gives a reference number and reports back on what was done. People who can see the state acting on their complaints have less reason to take matters into their own hands.

Fourth, the police should review arms licences held by people booked in drug cases, as a matter of routine.

Punjab’s young people need protection from drugs. They also need a state that protects the people who speak up, and a law that is enforced by the police and the courts, not by whoever holds the phone or the gun.

The reporting behind this view

• 3bullets that struck Parvinder Jhota in a Mansa chemist's shop on 13 October
• 79,784arrests reported by Punjab Police in their anti-drug drive since 1 March 2025
• July 2023when Jhota's supporters paraded the accused chemist, leading to cases against both men