Mansa tense as cops stop villagers from taking man’s body to anti-drug protest site

Tension gripped Mansa district in Punjab after police intercepted a casket carrying the body of a 32-year-old local man as villagers attempted to transport it to an ongoing anti-drug protest site. The deceased man's family alleged he died of a suspected drug overdose after going to purchase narcotics, and villagers initially blocked a local road before deciding to join a 15-day-old dharna seeking justice for a slain anti-drug activist named Parvinder Singh alias Jhota.

While the family maintained the death was drug-related, the district police asserted it was a murder case. According to the Senior Superintendent of Police, investigators discovered that four occupants of a white car had dumped the body in a field. Police detained three individuals linked to the vehicle and moved the body to an undisclosed location to preserve evidence and conduct an autopsy with family consent.

The situation escalated when police used mild force to disperse the crowd after some protesters allegedly attacked police personnel. Authorities also detained gangster-turned-politician Lakha Sidhana and others, accusing them of instigating the crowd with drug overdose rumors and participating in the attack on police. The Insaaf Committee condemned the police intervention and demanded the immediate release of those detained.

Not yet reported: The exact autopsy findings confirming the official cause of death and the final legal charges filed against all detained individuals are not detailed in the report.