Jhota’s body moved from Mansa to PGI, autopsy likely today

Post-mortem deferred as body, having remained in mortuary for three weeks, found too cold for immediate internal examination

The body of slain anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota was brought from Mansa to Chandigarh early Friday, but the autopsy was deferred at the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) as it was found to be in an extremely frozen condition.

The autopsy is now expected to be conducted on Saturday.

A PGIMER official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the delay was due to scientific reasons, as the body needed to reach a suitable temperature before the internal examination could be carried out. The external examination had already been completed, the official added.

The body of the 42-year-old activist, who was shot dead by a pharmacy owner in Mansa on October 13, had remained in cold storage for over three weeks amid a deadlock between the family and the government over the autopsy and cremation.

A breakthrough was achieved on November 4 after the Punjab government announced a ₹2-crore compensation for Jhota’s family and a government job for his wife.

The government also agreed to release two leaders associated with the agitation over Jhota’s murder. Arrested on October 28, the leaders, including , gangster-turned-politician Lakhvir Singh, alias Lakha Sidhana, and Mohanjit Singh Shero, were released from the Nabha district jail on Thursday evening. Subsequently, Jhota’s body, which had been lying at the mortuary of the Mansa civil hospital in Mansa ever since the murder, was shifted to PGIMER in an ambulance late Thursday night.

However, outside the Advanced Autopsy Centre at PGIMER, Jhota’s father, Bhim Singh, said the family would not accept either the compensation orthe job.

An ex-serviceman, Bhim Singh instead announced an indefinite fast, demanding the transfer of Mansa senior superintendent of police (SSP).

“I will not eat anything, whether I die today or tomorrow, until the SSP is removed. My appeal to the people of Punjab is that if I die during the fast, they should end the drug menace in the state,” he said, alleging corruption in the Punjab government.

Bhim Singh told reporters that the family will head back to Mansa with the body for the last rites after the post-mortem is conducted. The parents of Neha Shoree, a drug inspector who was shot dead by a pharmaceutical shop owner in Kharar in 2019, also visited PGIMER to extend their support and demand a fair investigation into Jhota’s murder.

Previously, following the aggrieved family’s demands, a deputy superintendent of police, a station house officer and a drug inspector in Mansa were suspended, and the probe was handed over to the CBI.

The family’s demands to set up a trauma centre in Jhota’s memory and compensation for each of the four injured in the incident were also met.The other demands, which the government agreed to, include a statue of Jhota at a suitable point in Mansa. A government-appointed panel of three women IAS officers had earlier announced that the government had agreed to accept the family’s 12 out of 14 demands.