Over three weeks after the murder of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota in Mansa on October 13, the aggrieved family and Insaaf Committee agreed to his autopsy and cremation on Friday.
The breakthrough came after a four-hour meeting between the protesters and government representatives — Punjab assembly Speaker Kultar Singh Sandhwan and agriculture minister Gurmeet Singh Khudian — on Wednesday evening, where it was announced that the Punjab government would give a compensation of ₹2 crore to Jhota’s family and a government job to his wife.
Following the agreement, the Insaaf Committee, which has been leading the agitation over Jhota’s murder, agreed to suspend its proposed gherao of chief minister’s residence on November 5.
In a joint press conference later held by the state government-appointed panel and committee members, Sandhwan said two leaders associated with the agitation, gangster-turned-politician Lakhvir Singh, alias Lakha Sidhana, and Mohanjit Singh Shero, who were arrested on October 28, would be released before the autopsy.
He said the police would also withdraw the attempt-to-murder case lodged for attacking a police party, and the district police will approach court regarding this on Friday.
Sandhwan said the family had agreed to an autopsy at PGIMER, Chandigarh, and CBI officials will prepare arrangements in this regard. He said that the federal agency would also be requested to fast-track the case.
The Speaker said responding to the family’s demand to regulate the sale of pregabalin capsules, the drug had been included in Schedule H1 and its sale would not be permitted without a doctor’s prescription from November 12.
“In an ongoing drive against the unauthorised sale of drugs in Mansa, the authorities have cancelled the drug licences of three chemists while suspending the licence of another. Four such shops have been sealed for various violations,” he shared.
Jhota was shot dead on October 13 inside a medical store in a crowded marketplace in Mansa. He had confronted pharmacy owner Ashwani Kumar over the alleged illegal sale of prescription drugs to an elderly man while livestreaming the confrontation on Facebook. The firing also injured four people.
Kumar and three others were arrested by the Mansa police within 24 hours.
Ever since, Jhota’s body has remained in the Mansa civil hospital mortuary without an autopsy, with the family sticking to their demand for resignations by chief minister Bhagwant Mann and state police chief Gaurav Yadav as a precondition for allowing it.
Two government-appointed panels of senior civil and police administration officials had held four meetings with the protesters to pacify them.
Following their demands, the probe was handed over to the CBI and a deputy superintendent of police, a station house officer and a drug inspector in Mansa were suspended.
A panel of three women IAS officers had also announced that the state government had agreed to accept 12 out of 14 demands.
On the occasion, the Speaker said the family of Daljit Singh, a resident of Bhamme Kalan village, who was found dead on October 27, would be given a compensation of ₹50 lakh, along with a government job for the deceased’s wife.