Mansa: The CBI on Wednesday inspected the residences of Ashwani Kumar, the main accused in the killing of anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, and his cousin Vipan Kumar as the agency intensified its investigation into the Oct 13 murder.Accompanied by Punjab Police personnel, the CBI team visited the partially demolished houses in Veer Nagar. Area councillor Geeta Rani and a relative of Vipan were present as witnesses during the visit to his residence. The team also spoke to neighbours to record their accounts of the incident. It spent more than three hours at the two locations, with a mechanic carrying iron tools also seen entering Ashwani’s house alongside police personnel.The visits came a day after the agency collected samples from Ashwani’s demolished medical store. The CBI also recorded statements from Jhota’s father Bhim Singh, mother Amarjit Kaur and wife Manpreet Kaur at a govt rest house. Sources said the agency was preparing a list of people close to Jhota to question as part of the investigation.Vipan was the first to be arrested after the killing on the charge of helping Ashwani escape. Ashwani, his wife Neelam Rani, Vipan and Ladi, who is also accused of helping Ashwani flee, were produced in court after their police remand ended on Wednesday. The court sent all four to judicial custody.With the case transferred to CBI, the agency is expected to seek their custody for further questioning, sources said.Meanwhile, uncertainty continued over Jhota’s postmortem, even on the 10th day after his death. His family said it would take a decision after consulting the committee that is leading the protest to seek justice in the case. The committee held meetings but did not reach a decision, while protests continued and supporters kept arriving in Mansa from other areas.
