A businessman shot dead in broad daylight after four years of extortion threats — and a police constable assigned to protect him killed in the same attack. Congress leader Sachin Pilot, general secretary of the Indian National Congress, travelled to Nakodar, Jalandhar on Sunday, October 18 to meet the bereaved family of Bhupinder Singh Chawla, popularly known as Timmy Chawla, and demanded the state government move from words to action.

Four years of threats, one morning of bullets

Pilot's post lays out a damning sequence: Timmy Chawla had been receiving continuous extortion threats for four years. Despite filing complaints with the police, the threats escalated to explicit death warnings. He was ultimately shot and killed in a daylight attack. Police constable Mandeep Singh, deployed specifically for Chawla's protection, also lost his life in the assault — a detail that cuts especially deep. A man sought police protection, got it, and both he and his protector were killed anyway.

Pilot's charge against the AAP government in Punjab

Writing in both Punjabi and Hindi, Pilot did not mince words: 'Punjab de logon nu khokhle vadon di nahin, sagun thoss karvayi di lorh hai' — 'The people of Punjab do not need hollow promises; they need concrete action.' He called the rising pattern of extortion threats and daylight shootings across Punjab 'extremely alarming,' arguing that criminal confidence is surging while ordinary citizens feel increasingly unsafe. His post tagged several Congress leaders from the state, including senior figures associated with the Punjab unit.

A wider pattern Congress is pressing on

The visit to Nakodar is part of a sustained Congress effort to document and amplify law-and-order concerns in states where the party is in opposition. Punjab, governed by the Aam Aadmi Party since 2022, has faced repeated criticism over extortion networks — some linked to gangsters operating from abroad — and over the speed of police response to pre-registered complaints. The Chawla case crystallises both failures: a victim who did everything right by the system, and a system that could not protect him.

Pilot's closing demand is pointed: strict punishment for the perpetrators and a structural halt to such incidents. 'Only this,' he wrote, 'will be true justice for these grieving families.' With state Congress leaders tagged in the post and the family now publicly amplified, pressure on the Punjab government to show visible investigative progress is mounting.

The real test now is not another press statement from Chandigarh — it is arrests, charges, and a credible answer to why four years of complaints produced zero protection.