Kapurthala, April 8
A woman in Punjab whose emotional appeal about losing four sons had drawn widespread attention has now lost her fifth son, family members and police said. Sonu, 32, died at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Amritsar on Tuesday after being referred there a day earlier for treatment, officials said. His family said he had been bedridden with a severe liver infection and was unable to eat or speak.
The case had sparked public concern after Sonu’s mother, Manjit Kaur, from Sultanpur Lodhi in Kapurthala district, told reporters on Sunday that four of her five sons had already died because of drugs. Folding her hands before the cameras, she appealed directly to Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to save her last surviving son. “I am the mother of five sons. Four have already died because of drugs,” she had said, standing beside her bedridden son. “If he dies, where will I take his children?”
Sonu is survived by his wife, a two-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter. Assistant Superintendent of Police Dheerendra Verma later confirmed Sonu’s death in Amritsar.
But the family’s account has since been challenged by the ruling Aam Aadmi Party. Punjab AAP general secretary Baltej Pannu said on Monday that a field verification found the deaths in the household had taken place over more than eight years and were linked to different causes, not all to drug abuse.
According to Mr Pannu, one son died around eight years ago in an alleged drug overdose. Another died about seven years ago in a fire-related incident. A third died in jail while facing two criminal cases, including one under the NDPS Act. The fourth, he said, died two years ago from alleged liver failure linked to chronic alcohol use.
The tragedy has once again brought attention to Punjab’s long-running struggle with substance abuse, even as political leaders and officials dispute the exact circumstances surrounding the deaths in the family.
