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.
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. 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. Kumar and three others were arrested by the Mansa police within 24 hours.
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.
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. 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.
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.
