Harsimrat Badal moves privilege notice against Mansa SSP, says drug overdose killed Daljit Singh

Chandigarh. Bathinda MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Saturday asked Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla to start breach of privilege proceedings against Mansa senior superintendent of police (SSP) Vaibhav Chaudhary. She accused him of brushing aside her questions about a dead farmer’s body that police took from his grieving family.

In her notice, the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) leader also made a new allegation. Citing “a credible source”, she said the post-mortem report blames a drug overdose for the death of Bhamme Kalan farmer Daljit Singh. Police have registered the death as a murder. She said this explains the SSP’s “partisan conduct” and accused him of trying to hide how Daljit died and to draw attention away from the drug angle.

Harsimrat has asked the Speaker to refer the matter to the Committee of Privileges. She also wants a report from the Punjab government, along with the FIR, inquest and post-mortem records. She has sought records on the whereabouts of Daljit’s father, Jarnail Singh, who the family says was taken away by police. She also called for an independent inquiry into the SSP’s role.

How the row started

Daljit Singh, a marginal farmer from Bhamme Kalan village in Mansa district, died in suspicious circumstances. His family blamed drugs and demanded action against suppliers. Police instead registered a murder case.

The death came amid an ongoing protest over the killing of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh, known as Jhota. According to the notice, he was shot dead on October 13 by a medical-store owner over illegal drug sales. His family and supporters have been on a dharna since then.

Daljit’s family and villagers wanted to take his body to the protest site to highlight what they saw as another drug death. Police stepped in and took the body. The family says this was done by force and intimidation, without their consent. They also said Jarnail Singh, who is diabetic, was taken away by uniformed policemen and they did not know where he was.

The phone call

Harsimrat said she called the SSP on speakerphone at about 6.22 pm on October 29 while visiting the family, with relatives and villagers present. The call was recorded and she has sent the video to the Speaker.

According to her, the SSP kept interrupting her. He called her account a “wrong narrative”, twice described her as “misguided” and termed her concerns “undue”.

She said the officer told her police took the body to maintain law and order. He said the family should collect it from AIIMS Bathinda themselves and that police had “no role” in that. On Jarnail Singh, he said “we are not aware” and advised filing a missing-person report. When she mentioned photographs showing Jarnail with uniformed police, he asked her to share them for verification, but did not explain the police role, she said.

“I was not seeking preferential treatment, I was seeking a responsible factual response to an urgent constituent grievance involving actions attributed to the police,” Harsimrat wrote.

She said the issue was not just rudeness but the officer’s “alleged dereliction of duty”, which blocked her efforts as Bathinda’s elected member to find out the facts. She said police appeared to be pressuring the family to accept their version to avoid further trouble.

The recorded exchange, she said, shows the officer’s attempts to “trivialise the substantive concerns raised and divert attention from them”, obstructing her work as an MP.