Former Punjab BJP president Jattvibeil Jakhar has urged Union Home Minister Amit Shah to order a probe by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) into what he called government patronage and money laundering linked to Punjab’s drug problem.In a letter dated October 17, Jakhar said the situation in the state continued to deteriorate because of drugs. He cited the recent incident in Mansa in which an anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota was shot for opposing the sale of drugs.Network ‘operated from prisons, across border’Jakhar drew Shah’s attention to a related case from Mansa. In 2024, the Punjab Police arrested a drug inspector who had served in the district. Assets worth crores were uncovered, including Rs 7.09 crore in 24 bank accounts, two bank lockers, Rs 1.49 crore in cash, 260 gm of gold, foreign currency and real estate worth Rs 2.40 crore. Jakhar said the Director General of Police had himself described the inspector as the kingpin of a gang involving jailed traffickers that facilitated the sale of drugs.The BJP leader said the case involved a drug network operating from prisons, cross-border links and movable and immovable assets worth crores, making it fit for a money laundering investigation. Yet, he alleged, the state government neither sought an NIA probe nor referred the matter to the ED.Accused given important posting: JakharJakhar alleged that after the inspector was granted bail, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government reinstated him in service and gave him an important posting at the department’s headquarters.He asked that the agencies identify the people behind the gang and establish at whose behest the inspector was given the posting despite his arrest in a drug case. Jakhar described him as a source of illicit earnings for the AAP government. The probe, he said, should also enable action against the drug trade operating from prisons under government patronage and uncover the associated money laundering.”The Punjab Government itself acknowledges that the misuse of pharmaceutical drugs is currently a major problem,” Jakhar wrote, adding that he was writing on behalf of the people of Punjab suffering because of drugs.