The Punjab government has transferred the murder investigation of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota to the Central Bureau of Investigation after his family and an action committee demanded a central probe, Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced on Tuesday.
Mann said the decision was taken after Jhota’s family sought the CBI investigation. In a post on X at 9.49am, he wrote that the government stood with Jhota’s father and family, who were “fighting against drugs”, and said the case was being handed over to the central agency.
The announcement came hours before Union home minister Amit Shah was scheduled to visit the bereaved family in Mansa. Jhota’s father, Bhim Singh, a former serviceman, had repeatedly said that he was not satisfied with the way the Punjab Police was handling the investigation. On Monday, he said he would raise the demand with Shah during the visit because the state government had not accepted it.
The action committee formed after Jhota’s murder had also been calling for a central investigation. The transfer followed a meeting on Monday between the bereaved family, action committee members and a three-member high-powered government committee comprising women IAS officers. During that meeting, Bhim Singh and his daughter-in-law, Manpreet Kaur, reiterated their demand for a CBI probe.
The CBI is expected to register a fresh first information report and seek the investigation records from the Punjab Police. The transfer will therefore move the case from the state police investigation framework to a central agency, although the supplied report does not provide details of the existing FIR, arrests or the specific findings recorded so far by the Punjab Police.
Jhota was killed on October 13 during a confrontation with a chemist whom he was confronting over the alleged illegal sale of prescription medicines. The confrontation was being streamed live on Facebook when the chemist allegedly shot him dead, according to the report.
Jhota had been campaigning against people involved in selling drugs, including chemists suspected of illegally supplying prescription medicines. His killing had made the investigation a wider public issue in Mansa, particularly because his family and supporters questioned whether the state police probe could adequately examine the circumstances surrounding his death.
The transfer also marks a significant administrative decision by the Punjab government. The Aam Aadmi Party government and Mann have previously accused the CBI of serving the political interests of the Bharatiya Janata Party, making the decision notable in the context of the state’s broader political position on central investigative agencies. The government has nevertheless accepted the family’s demand in this case.
The next formal steps are expected to be the CBI’s registration of a fresh FIR and its request for the Punjab Police case records. Further details of the central investigation, including its scope and the evidence it will examine, will become clear after the agency takes over the case.
