16-year-old dies after ‘forced drug injection’ in Fazilka; villagers protest, block highway

A 16-year-old matriculate, Parmjit Singh alias Bobby, died under mysterious circumstances in the Jhok Depolana village of Fazilka district.
According to Sukhwinder Singh, cousin of the deceased, three youths from the village allegedly took Parmjit with them around 11.30 pm on Tuesday and forcibly administered a drug injection to him, leading to his death. Sukhwinder claimed that Bobby was not a drug addict.
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The body of the youth was recovered from the outskirts of the village on Wednesday morning.
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Jaswinder Singh, a villager who also participated in the protest, alleged that five youths from the village had fallen prey to drugs in the past six months. He claimed that drugs were being sold openly in the village “like sugar”.
Enraged over the incident, family members and villagers staged a protest by blocking the road overbridge on the Fazilka-Ferozepur highway near the grain market in Fazilka town on Wednesday afternoon. The protesters also placed the body on the road and demanded strict action against the accused youths.
The protesters further demanded that the houses of drug peddlers, who they alleged had amassed huge wealth through the illegal trade, be bulldozed.
DSP Satinder Kumar, who visited the protest site, said the exact cause of death would be ascertained after the postmortem examination, which would be conducted by a board of medical officers at the Civil Hospital, Fazilka.
He said an FIR would be registered on the basis of the statement of the family members and assured that the accused would not be spared.
Commenting on allegations regarding the open sale of drugs in the village, the DSP said cases were being registered against drug peddlers, and action is taken whenever such incidents are reported.