Bathinda: Seven days after 42-year-old anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota was shot dead in broad daylight, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Wednesday formally registered an FIR and took over the probe into his murder in Punjab’s Mansa district.

The development comes hours after Union home minister Amit Shah met Jhota’s family and the announcement by Punjab chief minister Bhagwant Mann on Tuesday morning, bowing to the family’s demand for a central probe.

A specialised CBI team, led by a deputy inspector general (DIG), arrived in Mansa around midnight and formally requisitioned all case files, records, and physical seizures from the City-2 police station, where the original murder case was registered on October 14.

The investigative team includes forensic specialists, drug controllers, and GST experts. The team is examining and recording the statements of Jhota’s family members at the Mansa Circuit House.

Jhota’s post-mortem has not been conducted because the family and supporters refused to permit last rites until key demands were met. The autopsy will now be performed at Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh, by a panel of medical experts, with an inquest conducted by a local magistrate.

On October 13, Jhota was shot dead inside a medical store in a crowded Mansa marketplace while livestreaming a confrontation on Facebook Live. He was questioning the shop owner, Ashwani Kumar, over the alleged illegal sale of prescription drugs to an elderly man.

Kumar opened fire with his licensed pistol, killing Jhota and injuring four others. Following the incident, Kumar fled Punjab but police apprehended him in Salasar, Rajasthan. Mansa police subsequently arrested Kumar’s wife, Neelam Rani, along with two accomplices for aiding his escape.

The killing has sparked a political backlash in Punjab ahead of the assembly elections early next year.