Punjab: After couple says four sons lost to drugs, fifth dies in Amritsar; AAP refutes claim

KAPURTHALA: After a loss of a couple's four sons allegedly to drugs, their fifth offspring died at the Government Medical College and Hospital in Amritsar on Tuesday.

Sonu (32), the fifth son of the couple and whose condition was serious, was referred to Amritsar for treatment on Monday, his family members said, adding that he was bed-ridden due to a severe liver infection.

Speaking to mediapersons on Sunday, Sonu's mother Manjit Kaur in Sultanpur Lodhi here had claimed that she lost her four sons to drugs and made a fervent appeal to Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann to save her fifth son.

ASP Dheerendra Verma confirmed that Sonu passed away at the hospital in Amritsar.

"I am the mother of five sons. Four have already died because of drugs," Kaur had claimed, showing her bedridden son to the reporters. "If he dies, where will I take his children?" she had asked with folded hands.

Sonu, who was father to a two-year-old son and a six-month-old daughter, was suffering from a severe liver infection and was unable to speak or eat, his family members had told reporters.

Punjab Aam Aadmi Party general secretary Baltej Pannu on Monday, however, rebutted the claims of four deaths in a single household caused by drugs, asserting that the facts present a very different and more nuanced picture.

Pannu claimed a thorough field verification revealed that these deaths occurred over a span of more than eight years and were due to entirely different causes.

He said one son died around eight years ago due to an alleged drug overdose. Another son died approximately seven years ago due to fire and burn injuries."

"A third son died seven years ago in jail, where he was facing two criminal cases, including one under the NDPS Act. The fourth son died two years ago due to alleged liver failure as a chronic alcoholic," Pannu claimed.