‘Getting drugs like Zomato order’: His son dead, a Punjab cop’s helplessness

Shamsher Singh Sandhu, a leader of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), whose wife Surjit Kaur is a local municipal councillor, shares the “helplessness”. He says he has himself admitted around 22 addicts to drug rehab centres in the last one-and-a-half years, only to watch his efforts defeated by the easy availability of drugs.

Noting that youths falling prey to drugs mostly belong to poor families, a frustrated Sandhu says: “How do you make people understand that drugs are bad for them?”

However, Akash was not meant to be one of them. Saini talks about an intelligent son and a talented athlete, who played football for alma maters Khalsa School and Khalsa College. He went on to do B.Sc. in Hotel Management from Chief Khalsa Diwan, an Amritsar-based educational institution set up in 1902, with first-class honors.

“He was a bright boy,” says Saini, focused on his career, for which he had also given up sports.

Deployed with the Punjab Armed Police, the 51-year-old recalls when all that started coming apart. It was 2020-21, and Saini was away on election duty in Uttar Pradesh, when he got a phone call from a concerned acquaintance. “I was told my son had fallen into bad company.”

Saini’s heart sank, and when he returned home, his apprehension was confirmed: he had joined the ranks of parents fighting Punjab’s drug epidemic.

Saini, who has one more child, a daughter, says his wife and he spared no effort navigating the costly and gruelling world of rehabilitation for the next few years. Akash spent time at rehab centres across Amritsar and nearby Sri Hargobindpur, with the family spending between Rs 15,000-Rs 20,000 per month. The Head Constable is the only earning member of the family.

But, every time Akash came out, their fight started all over again, Saini says. “Inside centres, addicts are healthy, they eat well, and are disciplined. But the moment they step out, the temptation is everywhere.”

It’s like “a home delivery” service, says a bitter Saini. “Addicts make a phone call, and drugs are delivered right on the street. You cannot shadow your child 24 hours a day.”

Saini says he tried to sell his house to move the family away, but that he could not get a fair price as Guru Nanakpura is known for its “drug activity”.

Asked about this, Assistant Commissioner of Police Jaspal Singh said he didn’t have “the exact data”. “However, since the anti-drug campaign started, we have conducted many round-ups and registered several cases.” Describing Guru Nanakpura as “a slum kind of area”, Singh added that drug addiction there “is not excessively high”. “There were many addicts, but it’s under control now.”

Saini says he had got Akash home on Thursday last week full of hope as he had been “officially clean” for two months at the rehab centre. There was a function at the family’s ancestral home, and Saini thought it would be good for Akash to attend it.

Their last conversation was Akash telling his father that he was stepping out of the house for 10 minutes. “His body was clean. I had no reason to suspect he would directly go and shoot up. Since he had been away from drugs for many days, one injection of heroin proved fatal,” Saini says.

Officially, though, Akash’s death is not a “drug casualty”. In its “fact check” video, released within 24 hours of Saini’s claim that “drugs are being sold openly in Guru Nanakpura and Kot Khalsa areas of Amritsar”, ACP Jaspal Singh pointed to the fact that Akash had not consumed any drugs for the past two months. He said that when Saini rushed to him on being alerted that the 26-year-old was lying unconscious in a car near a gurdwara, “Akash was given some water, seemed better and was brought home… Because his pulse was dropping, they took him to a hospital, where he was declared dead.”

Singh added that Saini made the remarks about drugs being so common as he was “emotional”. “However, based on our investigation, no evidence of drug use (by Akash) has surfaced. Even upon checking the body, there were no marks of drug injections. The family is satisfied, and they do not want to pursue any action.”

Singh’s statement in the video released by the Amritsar police was followed by Saini’s, in which the father said that Akash was “fine” when taken to hospital. “When we brought the body home, and I saw him, I became very emotional and said things against the government that I shouldn’t have said. I don’t know exactly how he died, whether it was an attack (heart attack) or something else… I said things that I shouldn’t have, and I apologise.”

Asked about his statement in the police video, Saini told The Indian Express: “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Sandhu questions the role of the police, accusing many of them of being in league with drug traffickers. He says that ahead of a police raid, smugglers are “tipped off”, which is why many escape. Unless police clean its ranks, fighting the problem is impossible, the AAP leader says, adding: “The cycle of deaths due to drugs in the area remains unabated.”

Originally from Gurdaspur, Saini says he came to Amritsar to give his family a better future. “I first worked in the Home Guards and then was regularised in police. With my son gone, I am left with no future.”

However, he hopes the government will act to save other futures. “Please save your children. I am pleading as a younger brother to the authorities… I don’t want any other mother to be left desolate. The government must shut this down by any means necessary.”