A photograph of late Neha Shoree, a Food and Drug Administration official in Punjab, who was shot dead in 2019, is being shared on social media with misleading captions portraying her murder as recent.
The posts claim Shoree was murdered recently for raiding a few pharmacy outlets and suspending their licence for selling banned intoxicants.
BOOM found that the incident happened in 2019. Shoree, a zonal licensing authority of Food and Drug Administration, was killed inside her office near Mohali after she had cancelled a pharmacy owner's licence following a raid in 2009, ten years prior to her death.
The Hindi caption with the image translates to, "This is Dr Neha Suri, who was posted as a drug Inspector in Punjab. Just a few months back, she raided some pharmacy outlets and cancelled their licenses for selling banned intoxicating drugs. Yesterday, a drug peddler came to her office in Mohali and shot her in broad daylight. An honest officer, who fought against the drugs that ruined nearly 70-80% of Punjab's youth, was shot dead! People like Neha's bravery is as important as that of our armed forces, army and police personnel. These people protect the country from inside! They protect our society, our youth, our people! Heartfelt salute to this brave and honest lady who sacrificed her life protecting the future of many youths! It should be noted that the electronic media is silent, so now no-one will talk about the drugs in Punjab! Salute to this brave woman".
Click here to view the post.
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Incident From 2019
BOOM did a keyword search to know about Neha Shoree and found an ANI tweet published on March 30, 2019. The tweet text reads as, "Kharar: Dr. Neha Shoree, Zonal Licensing Authority of Food and Drug Administration, was shot dead by unidentified assailant yesterday at Drug & Chemical Testing Laboratory. The assailant later shot himself dead. #Punjab".
In its reply, ANI also wrote, "Punjab Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh has directed DGP to ensure speedy probe into the killing of Dr. Neha Shoree. CM has ordered prompt investigation into the matter to get to the bottom of the case. (File pic)".
Click here to view the tweet.
We then performed a reverse image search on the photo to confirm the identity of the women present in the viral post found a The Times Of India article published on April 4, 2019.
The article carried the same photo and identified the woman as late FDA officer Dr Neha Shoree. It was reported that she was killed by a chemist named Balwinder Singh for cancelling his shop's licence in 2009.
"Balwinder's licence was cancelled in 2009 when a raid was carried out at his chemist shop by Neha, who was posted as drug inspector at the time. During the raid, around 35 types of intoxicants were found in his shop and he failed to produce any documents related to them," the article stated.
The report further stated, "Sources in police said, "After the seizure from his shop, he made efforts to prevent cancellation of his licence. Then he reapplied in his wife's and brother-in-law's names, but his applications were turned down."
Another news report by the Indian Express reported that Balwinder Singh shot himself when bystanders blocked his escape.
The Indian Express also reported that even though the family alleged the role of a drug cartel in Shoree's murder, the the Bureau of Investigation (BoI), Punjab filed a closure report into the investigation in the court of sub-divisional judicial magistrate on January 8, 2020 which was accepted by the court.
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