Youth dies of suspected drug overdose; family holds protest

An 18-year-old boy died of a suspected drug overdose in Tarn Taran town. The deceased has been identified as Abhi Kumar, a resident of Gali Mehar Singh Memorial School Wali, Mohalla Nanaksar. His body was found on Thursday morning in a house in the locality.

Vijay Kumar, father of the deceased, stated in his complaint to the city police that his son was taken away by two residents of the same locality, who were living in a rented portion, on Wednesday evening. Abhi did not return home that night, and his mobile phone also remained switched off.

Vijay Kumar alleged that his son was given a drug overdose by the two men who had taken him along on Wednesday evening. The police registered a case under Section 194 of the BNSS on Thursday.

After conducting the postmortem, the police handed over the body to the family. Vijay Kumar and other residents of the area claimed that drugs are easily available in the locality and accused the police of failing to take action against the problem.

The family members of Abhi (18), along with residents of the Mohalla Nanaksar locality, have refused to accept the police action and staged a dharna on the main road, protesting against the late-evening incident involving the police, which caused heavy disruption to traffic in the town.

The family members, along with MC councillors Jaspreet Singh (Ward No.7), Sanjeev Kundra (Ward No.8) and Manoj Agnihotri (Ward No.10), alleged that the police had misled Vijay Kumar and warned that if a case was not registered against the persons responsible for Abhi’s death, they would not cremate the body.

At the time of filing this report, the residents were still sitting at the dharna site, while the police were attempting to persuade them to lift the protest in view of the inconvenience caused to commuters due to the traffic disruption.