Drug overdose: 27-year-old from Punjab’s Batala dies during treatment
His mother urged the state government and the police to take strict action against drug peddlers active in the area
In yet another incident of death due to suspected drug overdose, a 27-old-old man from here died during treatment at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh on Sunday evening. Victim Happy Masih of Dakhla village was a truck driver and was addicted to drugs for some years, his family said.
Last week, when his condition deteriorated, he was admitted to the local civil hospital but then referred to a hospital at Amritsar, from where he was further referred to the PGIMER.
Tears in her eyes, his mother Bhajni told HT that he often stayed away owing to his work. “In the course of the work, he was hooked to drugs. For the last couple of months, he rarely talked to the family. Last week, two of his friends dropped him outside our home in a serious condition and, when I asked him, he told me that he was addicted to drugs”.
She urged the state government and the police to take strict action against the drug peddlers active in the area “so that other people can be saved from this deadly menace which is eating the youth of the state like a termite”.
Sadar police SHO Kulwinder Singh said that on Sunday evening police got a call from the PGIMER that the man from Dakhla village had died. His body was brought to the local civil hospital, where a post-mortem was conducted. “For now, we have started inquest proceedings, and will act further after the reason of death is formally known in the autopsy report.”
