To make a point that drugs are still easily available in Punjab, Lok Insaf Party (LIP) leader and Ludhiana MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains bought heroin on Facebook Live on Monday.

Streaming the clip of the buying process live on social media, Bains told viewers that white heroin was being sold “like potatoes” in Ludhiana and alleged that the police administration was hand-in-glove with the drug mafia. The MLA asked how the station house officers (SHOs) were unaware while banned substances were being sold openly in the city.

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The Facebook Live video continued till Bains approached Ludhiana Police Commissioner Sukhchain Singh Gill, handing him over half of the purchased drugs for laboratory tests. The other half, the MLA said, was not given by him to the police fearing they could manipulate the chemical test report. He claimed that he would get the remaining of chitta examined in a private lab.

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh had on Thursday claimed that his government broke “the back of drug mafia in the state within four weeks of forming government”. But the demand for catching “big fish” in the drug cases was heard in the Punjab Assembly recently despite the CM challenging all those who had been pointing fingers at the government for not acting against influential drug dealers.

Citing figures of the arrests and seizures in the drug cases, Amarinder had said: “We know one-two people who are out if the country, and we will also catch them,” said Capt Amarinder while vowing to continue “to fight the battle against drugs from the front, not resting till it is completely eliminated from the State”.

LIP MLA Simarjeet Singh Bains had asked why no action had been taken against the persons whose names had been mentioned in the report submitted by the Special Task Force (STF) on drugs, then headed by Harpreet Sidhu.

“The names were mentioned in the STF report…your own cabinet minister had read the entire report before the media. Why no action has been taken against that? Every day, youngsters are dying due to overdose,” he had asked.

Bains urged the government to prepare the cases of the “big fish” and sent them to the courts “so that they should know what wrong they have done to the Punjabi youth”.

Congress MLA Fateh Jung Bajwa also demanded to act against the persons named in the STF report.