Punjab has seen many killings — perhaps never watched one live. On 13 October, at around 9.15 a.m. Parvinder Singh ‘Jhota’ walked into a chemist’s shop in Mansa, holding his phone out in front of him. It was the only weapon he carried.

For approximately four minutes, his followers on Facebook Live watched Jhota confront shop owner Ashwani Kumar, accusing him of selling nasha (drugs) to an elderly man. Kumar pulled out a pistol. “Maar mainu, maar mainu (kill me)," Jhota dared him. Three shots rang out, the phone tumbled to the floor, and the screen went dark.

Jhota means ‘bull’, a nickname that suited Parvinder to a tee. A former boxer and recovered addict, he had turned his own demons into the 'Nasha Roko, Rozgar Do' crusade. His anti-drug task force model was replicated by village committees across Mansa and Bathinda. Jhota’s method was crude but effective: walk in, camera rolling, and catch the chitta (drug) peddler red-handed.

His feud with Ashwani Kumar wasn’t new. In July 2023, Jhota and his supporters accused the chemist of selling banned drugs and paraded him through the market wearing a garland of shoes. Both were booked. Jhota spent months behind bars. Kumar, who reportedly faced at least five FIRs, walked away with an arms licence for a 7.62 mm pistol and a 12-bore gun.

The man who fought drugs went to jail; the man accused of selling them got a gun licence. That single irony did more to indict the system than a hundred press conferences. It laid bare the old triangle — politician, policeman, smuggler — that political scientists call an iron triangle and ordinary Punjabis simply call “setting”.

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Within days of Jhota’s murder, the local SHO was suspended and the SSP claimed 138-plus cases had been filed against chemists in a single month. Why had they waited over three years to do that?

In the last four years, Mansa has given Punjab two ‘martyrs’. In May 2022, Sidhu Moosewala, gunned down in........

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