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Haryana ASI who arrested Puran Kumar’s aide found dead in Rohtak
Assistant sub inspector Sandeep Lathar, who was part of the team that arrested IPS officer’s aide Sushil Kumar on October 6, put out video accusing Puran Kumar of corruption.
Haryana Police assistant-sub inspector (ASI) Sandeep Lathar, 41, was found dead after he allegedly shot himself with his service revolver at Ladhot village in Rohtak district on Tuesday afternoon, police said.
Lathar was part of the Rohtak CIA-2 team that intercepted and caught then IG Y Puran Kumar’s associate Sushil Kumar, an exemptee assistant sub inspector, on October 6 on corruption charges following a complaint by liquor contractor Praveen Bansal.
Rohtak superintendent of police Surendra Singh Bhoria told reporters at the crime site on the Ladhot-Dhamar road: “This was a hardworking ASI of our police department, Sandeep. He was posted in the cyber cell. He was honest and hardworking. His body has been found. A forensic team has been called and the investigation is underway.”
Hours after leader of opposition in the Lok Sabha and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi met Puran Kumar’s family in Chandigarh and demanded justice for Dalits, Lathar, a native of Julana in Jind district, left behind a three-page suicide note and shot a six-minute video shared widely on social media in which he accused Puran Kumar and his family of corruption.
In the note, the authenticity of which is still under probe, Lathar termed the 2001-batch IPS officer, who was found dead at his Chandigarh residence on October 7, a “corrupt officer” and claimed to have “ample evidence” against him. He alleged that Kumar died by suicide out of fear of arrest and accused him of “hijacking the system by exploiting casteism”.
Puran Kumar, 52, had left behind a nine-page “final note”, accusing eight senior IPS officers, including Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and now transferred Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya, of “blatant caste-based discrimination, targeted mental harassment, public humiliation and atrocities”. His wife and senior Haryana bureaucrat Amneet P Kumar has not given consent to carry out the autopsy, demanding the arrest of DGP Kapur and then Rohtak SP Bijarniya. Amid mounting pressure, the Haryana government sent DGP Kapur on leave on Tuesday and gave the additional charge of the state police chief to OP Singh. Bijarniya has since been placed under suspension.
ASI Lathar wrote in the note in Hindi: “I am demanding an investigation by sacrificing my life. This corrupt family should not be spared.”
In the video, he praised Haryana DGP Kapur and former Rohtak SP Bijarniya, describing them as honest officers.
“When the CDR (call detail record) is checked, my allegations will be proved right. His (Puran Kumar’s) wife (Amneet P Kumar) is an IAS officer and brother-in-law an MLA (AAP’s Amit Rattan). Do they think that they are the most powerful? He (Puran Kumar) has committed suicide after an FIR of corruption was registered. When Sushil Kumar was arrested, he was accompanied by driver Dharmender and they had collected a ‘monthly sum’ from elsewhere. When we arrested Sushil, he told us that we can’t do anything to him and the officer (Puran Kumar) will get him freed. The money which Sushil brought from Sunaria was kept in the dashboard,” ASI Lathar alleged in the video.
According to Haryana Police officials, the IPS officer’s act of allegedly ending his life has genesis in a first information report (FIR) registered at Urban Estate police station in Rohtak against Sushil Kumar, who was arrested under the Prevention of Corruption Act for taking ₹2.5 lakh from liquor contractor Praveen Bansal on behalf of Puran Kumar, who was the inspector general of police, Rohtak range, till September 29. Kumar was yet to assume charge at his new posting as the IG, Police Training Centre, at Sunaria in Rohtak.
