A day after the Kapurthala police rescued two young brothers allegedly pushed into drug use by a man from outside the area, another youth died of a suspected drug overdose in Kapurthala.20-year-old Gurvinder Singh, a resident of Gazipur village in Sultanpur Lodhi, was found collapsed at a tubewell in Toti village, Sultanpur Lodhi, Kapurthala, on Thursday.He was taken to hospital but was declared brought dead. His brother, Amandeep Singh, was also admitted to hospital with drug-related complications on Thursday. However, following news of his brother’s death, his family hurriedly took him away with an IV drip still attached to him.This caused a commotion at the civil hospital after staff discovered that he was missing. Inconsolable family members later cremated Gurvinder at Gazipur.The twin villages of Gazipur and Toti are both located in Sultanpur Lodhi, close to another drug hotspot, Lattianwal, in Kapurthala district.Kapurthala police said they received information about the incident only after the deceased had been cremated, and the family did not press charges. However, the police are independently investigating the drug supply chain in the case.The incident comes in the wake of a viral video showing a 10-year-old boy snorting drugs. The Subhanpur police had rescued two brothers, aged 10 and 13, from their village, Raipur Jhuggian.Speaking to the media in a statement that has since gone viral, a sobbing Jagtar Singh, father of the deceased Gurvinder, alleged, “My son was a habitual drug user. He had gone to Toti village to take drugs. He lay there for two to three hours. Drugs are openly sold in Toti. No one stops these people. Young men from families are dying. The administration must put an end to this. My 20-year-old son lies dead today; others must not meet the same fate. Earlier, he used to take drugs using foil, but later he started injecting them with syringes. When I reached him, he was barely breathing. At the local cremation ground, 30 to 35 men can often be seen using syringes.”DSP Sultanpur Lodhi Dheerendra Verma said, “By the time we received information, the youth had already been cremated. The family neither informed us nor pressed any charges. Hence, no formal FIR has been registered. According to the information received so far, both brothers were addicted to drugs. The elder brother died of a suspected drug overdose in Toti village, while the other is undergoing treatment for addiction-related issues. Villages such as Toti and Lattianwal have been identified as drug hotspots. We are independently investigating the drug supply chain in this case.”Kapurthala Deputy Commissioner Akash Bansal said, “The administration, the Civil Surgeon’s office and other departments conduct anti-drug drives every day. SDMs and DSPs visit hotspots. Recently, the SSP also conducted drives in Lattianwal and Sechan villages. Skill development workshops, seminars and employment-generation schemes are also being run to help young people access interest-free loans. We have also started identifying and monitoring vulnerable areas, such as tubewells, cremation grounds and abandoned buildings, where drug users are likely to congregate. Lighting and CCTV camera coverage are being ensured at such locations. As for the two children, they have been admitted to a government rehabilitation centre, and we are closely monitoring their case.”