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The Shiromani Punjab Forum, an independent, non-partisan think tank, has called for the posthumous award of the Kirti Chakra, the nation’s second-highest peacetime gallantry award, to Ms. Neha Shoree. Ms. Shoree, the Zonal Licensing Authority (Drugs) at Kharar, was shot dead at her desk in her government office on 29 March 2019.
The Forum has also sought the same honour for anti-drug activist Parvinder Singh Jhota, shot dead in Mansa on 13 October 2026. Separately, the Forum has endorsed as “eminently reasonable” the demand by Ms. Shoree’s father, Capt. Kailash Shoree (Retd.), for a CBI investigation into her murder.
Beyond the call of duty
Ms. Shoree had taken on the illegal diversion and black-marketing of controlled medicines, including Buprenorphine meant for de-addiction centres. The Forum noted that she went well beyond the call of duty. She chose to confront a network that she knew to be armed and dangerous, rather than look away from it, and she paid for it with her life. The Kirti Chakra is open to civilians.
A Kirti Chakra, the Forum said, would honour more than one brave daughter of Punjab. It would also recognise the countless intrepid Punjabi women who are standing up to expose and resist drug dealers, couriers and the big fish behind them, and it would give them a source of inspiration.
Two children of soldiers, one cause
Forum spokesperson Col. Jasjit Singh Gill (Retd.), a Ludhiana-based environmental activist, pointed out that Ms. Shoree was the daughter of an ex-serviceman. Parvinder Singh Jhota was the son of an ex-serviceman. Jhota was killed at a chemist’s shop in Mansa while confronting, on camera, a man he accused of selling addictive drugs.
“Both stood their ground against an armed adversary, knowing the risk,” Col. Gill said. “Jhota’s exemplary courage deserves the same recognition as Neha’s, a Kirti Chakra.” The Forum urged the Government of Punjab to forward both names, with the citations, to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs for consideration in the next round of gallantry awards.
A father’s reasonable demand
Capt. Shoree has written to the Union Home Minister seeking a CBI probe into his daughter’s murder. Seven and a half years on, the family is still asking who stood behind the gunman. The Forum said it also wants to know how the gunman obtained an arms licence the day after the Model Code of Conduct for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections came into force. The Forum stressed that the case for the gallantry award stands on its own, whether or not the CBI inquiry is ultimately ordered.
“Punjab’s war on drugs will not be won by enforcement alone. It also needs the State to stand up, in public, for those who fell fighting it,” Col. Gill added.
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