ANGER against the medical store owner accused of killing anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh alias Jhota spilled onto the streets of Punjab’s Mansa town on Wednesday, with authorities razing a portion of his house and mobs setting ablaze his shop nearby to slogans and loud cheers. Jhota, known for raising his voice against drug abuse and illegal sale of addictive substances at chemist shops, was shot in broad daylight at a busy marketplace on Tuesday. Ashwani Kumar, the medical store owner who opened fire on Jhota after he questioned him for selling addictive drugs to an elderly man, has been taken into custody from Salasar in Rajasthan, police said The incident took place while the activist was hosting a Facebook Live. The daylight killing has triggered a political slugfest in Punjab, which goes to polls early next year, with Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann vowing the strictest punishment for the accused, and opposition leaders claiming a complete breakdown of law and order amid a “Jungle Raj” in the state.

 

Reiterating the State Government’s zero-tolerance policy towards drug trafficking, Mann appealed to the people to maintain peace. Bathinda Range DIG Harjit Singh said Kumar has been arrested and an FIR has been registered against two persons. Earlier, dramatic scenes unfolded on the streets of Mansa as an excavator razed the front portion of accused Ashwani Kumar’s house located in an alley in Veer Nagar. People could be seen climbing the boundary walls of the nearby houses to catch a glimpse of the demolition, which, according to police, followed information about unauthorised construction on the premises. The bulldozer action was also initiated at Kumar’s store located about 700 metres from the house, before angry mobs, including some ‘Nihangs’, ripped it apart amid heavy police presence, with a large crowd filming the act. They vandalised the store, where Jhota was shot, with swords, sticks and stones, with the crowd raising slogans against the accused as the structure came apart brick by brick, before it was set ablaze. The mob also dragged the furniture from the store onto the road and set it ablaze.