India’s Central Bureau of Investigation registered a case and took charge of the murder of anti-drug campaigner Parvinder Singh Jhota on Wednesday, sending a team to Mansa in Punjab hours after Union Home Minister Amit Shah met the victim’s family in Bathinda.
Jhota was shot inside a medical store on October 13 after he confronted owner Ashwani Kumar over alleged drug sales, an attack that was partially captured on a Facebook Live stream and has since become a rallying point ahead of Punjab’s state elections early next year.
From state police to a federal file
Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann announced on Tuesday that the state would transfer the probe to the CBI, accepting a demand Jhota’s relatives and a joint action committee of activists had pressed for a week. The Indian Express reported that CBI officials formally registered the case on Wednesday and began receiving documents from Mansa police.
The Tribune said investigators arrived in Mansa late Tuesday, taking custody of the police case diary after Shah’s visit. Local police had already arrested Kumar in Rajasthan’s Salasar; he is accused of opening fire after Jhota questioned him about selling addictive substances to an elderly customer.
What the CBI is expected to examine
India Today reported that the federal team will trace how the shooting was planned, map Kumar’s alleged narcotics network, and review whether any police officers facilitated drug sales or hindered earlier complaints. Opposition parties, including the BJP and Shiromani Akali Dal, had accused the state government of moving too slowly before Mann’s CBI announcement.
BJP leaders claimed Mann ordered the handover only under pressure from Shah’s scheduled visit; Mann’s office framed the decision as honoring the family’s wishes. Shah told reporters after meeting Jhota’s father that the Centre would pursue a thorough inquiry.
Political temperature in Punjab
Jhota had built a reputation confronting chemist shops he believed were pushing prescription-style addictions in Mansa’s markets. His killing triggered street protests and a sit-in outside the district administration, with demonstrators also demanding resignations of senior Punjab police officials.
The case lands in an already heated pre-election climate in which both the Aam Aadmi Party government and the BJP are trading accusations over Punjab’s drug enforcement record. A federal probe does not automatically settle those arguments, but it moves witness interviews, phone dumps, and financial tracing into CBI courts that opposition leaders have argued are harder for state actors to influence.
Next steps on the ground
CBI teams typically re-interview eyewitnesses, reconstruct the medical-store shooting timeline, and expand the net beyond the arrested shop owner if digital or financial records point to suppliers. Mansa police have not publicly identified additional suspects.
Until the agency files charges or clears officials, Jhota’s supporters say they will keep pressure on both Bathinda and Delhi. For the family, the immediate question is not only who pulled the trigger, but whether a central investigation can break what they describe as a pattern of impunity around retail drug sales in the district.