Bhamme Kalan Death Sparks Row; Badal Slams Punjab Police

Chandigarh, October 27: A death in Mansa district has become the latest flashpoint in Punjab's escalating political row over drugs and policing. Shiromani Akali Dal MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal has accused the police and the Aam Aadmi Party government of ignoring the families of drug victims and suppressing those who campaign against narcotics.

The Case in Bhamme Kalan

Harsimrat alleged that Daljit Singh, 35, of Bhamme Kalan village in Mansa, died of a suspected drug overdose. She said the police took his body without the consent of his family.

“Have you ever heard of a state where the police remove a dead body illegally? Welcome to Bhagwant Mann's Punjab. Today, this exact thing has happened,” she wrote in a video message on X.

Family Says Body Was Taken

According to Harsimrat, the family wanted to take the body to a dharna site in Jhota, but administration officials stopped them and took the body away by force. She quoted the family as saying that the police had not even told them where the body had been taken.

In an earlier post, she had described the death as yet another young life lost to drugs, adding that the police were once again trying to cover it up by calling it a case of “personal enmity.”

Demand for NHRC Intervention

Harsimrat urged the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) to immediately take cognisance of the matter. She said the police under the AAP government were waging a war against Punjab and Punjabis, at a time when grieving families were already under immense strain.

Crime Surge Raised

In another post, she pointed to a rise in violent crime, saying four murders had been reported in Moga, Amritsar, Patiala and Ludhiana on a single day. She described such incidents as increasingly common.

She held Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann, who is also Punjab's Home Minister, responsible for failures on drugs and law and order. She said he could have acted strictly against both but had not, accusing the system and AAP members of profiting from the loss of Punjab's youth.

The allegations are likely to keep the drug issue and policing standards at the centre of Punjab's political debate.