Mansa, Oct 28 A joint action committee seeking justice in the death of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota gave a call on Wednesday for gheraoing AAP MLAs on October 31.
The committee also sought the release of around 20 people, including Waris Punjab De leader Lakha Sidhana and Punjab student union leader Arvinder Kaur Azad, who were detained by police on Tuesday, it further said.
Two weeks after Jhota’s murder, his family has refused to allow a post-mortem until their various demands, including Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann’s resignation, are met.
Following the direction of Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Kuldeep Singh Gargajj, prayers were held at gurdwaras at many places in the state for justice for Jhota on Wednesday.
Prayers were also offered for saving Punjab’s youth from the scourge of drugs, guiding them towards the right path at all historic gurdwaras managed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC).
Bharti Kisan Union (Ekta Ugrahan) on Wednesday held protests outside 40 police stations in 13 districts against the alleged police high-handedness in Mansa. They demanded that the body of Daljit Singh, who died on Tuesday, be handed over to his family.
Police on Tuesday took away the body of Daljit and shifted it to AIIMS Bathinda when his family was intending to carry it to the site where slain Jhota’s family was holding a protest.
Visuals of police lifting Daljit’s body and carrying it across a road divider before pushing it into a vehicle were shared by several opposition leaders on their social media handles.
According to Daljit’s family, he allegedly died of a drug overdose but the police said it was a case of murder.
Speaking to media here on Wednesday evening, action committee member Manik Goyal said they have given a call to gherao AAP MLAs on October 31.
Another member of the committee said they will hold talks with the government only if their members detained by the police are released.
The committee also criticised the police for projecting Daljit’s death as a murder, and not due to drug overdose.
Former chief minister Charanjit Singh Channi met Daljit’s family at his residence in Bhamme Kalan in Mansa.
He also spoke to Mansa Senior Superintendent of Police Vaibhav Choudhary over the phone, seeking to know where the police took Daljit’s father and a few other relatives.
However, Choudhary told Channi that the police did not take them anywhere.
Channi claimed that Daljit died of drug overdose, but the police called it a case of murder and also took away his body.
Punjab Congress president Pargat Singh also launched a sharp attack on the Bhagwant Mann government and demanded the dismissal of the Mansa SSP.
Singh said Punjab was witnessing a situation in which public confidence in the police and administration was “steadily eroding”.
He described the alleged incident of police taking the body of the deceased away from his family as extremely serious.
Such images, he said, were deeply disturbing for any democratic system and raised concerns about the emergence of emergency-like conditions in Punjab.
The government’s responsibility is to listen to people and act in accordance with the law, not to suppress public anger through force, said Pargat Singh in Chandigarh.
Singh warned that unless serious action was taken on drugs, unemployment, law and order, and administrative accountability, conditions in Punjab could deteriorate further.
(PTI News)
