Punjabs Drug Inspector Murdered Under AAP Government? 3-Year-Old Incident Viral With False Claim

Image Credit: Twitter

The Logical Indian Crew

Punjab's Drug Inspector Murdered Under AAP Government? 3-Year-Old Incident Viral With False Claim

Social media users are sharing posts claiming that a drug inspector Dr Neha Shoree was shot dead in Punjab as she was fighting against the drug mafias after Bhagwant Mann became the Chief Minister of Punjab. The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the viral claim.

A picture of a woman is being shared on social media while targeting the recently formed Punjab government. While sharing this image, it is being claimed that drug inspector Dr Neha Shoree was shot dead in Punjab, who was fighting against the drug mafias after Bhagwant Mann became the Chief Minister of Punjab.

Before becoming the CM, Bhagwant Mann had promised to end the drugs syndicate in Punjab. Many fake claims went viral after the Aam Aadmi Party formed the government in Punjab.

A Twitter user shared this image and wrote a caption which reads in Hindi, "पंजाब में @AamAadmiParty की सरकार और भगवंत मान के मुख्यमंत्री बनते ही ड्रग इंस्पेक्टर डॉ नेहा सूरी, जो ड्रग माफियाओं और प्रतिबंधित नशीली दवाओं की बिक्री करने वालो पर सख्त कार्यवाही कर रही थी, की गोली मरकर हत्या."

[English Translation: In Punjab @AamAadmiParty government and as soon as Bhagwant Mann became the Chief Minister, drug inspector Dr Neha Suri, who was taking strict action against drug mafia and seller of banned drugs, was shot dead.]

Another user wrote, डॉ नेहा सूरी पंजाब में ड्रग इंस्पेक्टर के पोस्ट पर तैनात थीं। कुछ महीने पहले फार्मेसी आउटलेट्स पर छापा मारा था और प्रतिबंधित नशीली दवाओं की बिक्री के लिए लाइसेंस रद्द कर दिए थे। एक ड्रग पेडलर ने मोहाली में इनके कार्यालय में आकर दिनदहाड़े इन्हें गोली मार दी."

[English Translation: Dr Neha Suri was posted as Drug Inspector in Punjab. Pharmacy outlets were raided a few months ago, and licenses for the sale of banned drugs were revoked. A drug peddler came to his office in Mohali and shot him in broad daylight.] This tweet was retweeted by Divya Kumar Soti as well.]

This post is widely shared on Facebook and Twitter with a similar claim.

Image Credit: Facebook

Claim:

Drug inspector Dr Neha Shoree was shot dead in Punjab, who was fighting against the drug mafias after Bhagwant Mann became the Chief Minister of Punjab.

Fact Check:

The Logical Indian Fact Check team verified the viral claim and found it to be misleading. The viral incident took place in 2019.

We did a google reverse image search during the initial investigation, which led us to several media reports dated back to March 2019. According to the report of Patrika dated 30 March 2019, the girl in the viral image was identified as Neha Shoree, a drug inspector posted in Mohali, Punjab. She was murdered on 29 March 2019 at her office in Kharar near Mohali. After entering his office, the accused was identified as Balwinder Singh of Morinda, who shot and killed Drug Inspector Neha Shourie (35), an officer of the Zonal License Authority. Later, Balwinder committed suicide by shooting himself out of fear of being caught.

Image Credit: Patrika

We also found tweets by ANI dated back to March 2019 in this case. According to it, after the death of Neha Shoree, the then Chief Minister of Punjab, Captain Amrinder Singh, ordered DGP for a speedy investigation into this killing.

According to the report of The Times of India dated 22 Dec 2019, Neha was posted in the Food and Drug Administration of Punjab. In 2009, Neha had raided a drugstore of a person identified as Balwinder Singh. Many unauthorised drugs were found during the raid, due to which Neha cancelled Balwinder's license. In 2017, Balwinder applied for a permit again in his wife's and other family members' names, but Neha cancelled it again. On 29 March 2019, Balwinder reached Neha's office and shot her. Balwinder tried to run away from the spot, but people surrounded him. After this, Balwinder shot himself too, and he died. Police in their report have not mentioned any involvement of the Drug mafia in this case.

Image Credit: Times Of India

Many other media outlets like Financial Express, Dainik Jagran, NDTV, Indian Express etc., also reported the same.

Our investigation shows that the case of murder of Drug Inspector Neha Shoree in Punjab is more than three-year-old. This incident occurred during the Captian Amrinder Singh government, and Aam Aadmi Party came into power in February 2022. Hence, the viral claim is false.

If you have any news that you believe needs to be fact-checked, please email us at factcheck@thelogicalindian.com or WhatsApp at 6364000343.

Also Read: Fake Pir Caught In India For Duping People? No, Viral Video Is From Pakistan

Contributors Suggest Correction
Writer : Jakir Hassan
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Editor : Bharat Nayak
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Creatives : Jakir Hassan

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