Haryana CM assures IPS officer’s family culprits, however influential, won’t be spared

Opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party leaders, including Randeep Surjewala, Deepender Hooda, Charanjit Singh Channi, Kumari Selja and Manish Sisodia, make beeline to meet bereaved family, express solidarity.

Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday assured the family of IPS officer Y Puran Kumar of a thorough inquiry into his alleged suicide on October 7 and strict action against the accused.

Haryana chief minister Nayab Singh Saini on Saturday assured the family of IPS officer Y Puran Kumar of a thorough inquiry into his alleged suicide on October 7 and strict action against the accused. (HT file photo)

On a day when leaders from the opposition Congress and Aam Aadmi Party, including Randeep Surjewala, Deepender Hooda, Charanjit Singh Channi, Kumari Selja and Manish Sisodia, made a beeline to meet the IPS officer’s bureaucrat wife Amneet P Kumar at her official residence in Sector 24, Chandigarh, the BJP leader said in Panchkula: “This is an unfortunate incident. The family has demanded justice. We have assured them that there will be a thorough inquiry. Action will be taken against the accused. There should not be politics on such sensitive issues.”

He was speaking at the BJP state executive meeting in Panchkula, where members paid tribute to the late officer by observing a two-minute silence.

CM Saini reiterated his commitment to the bereaved family by saying: “No matter how influential the culprit, they won’t be spared. Our government will work to deliver justice.”

Saini shared that he was in constant touch with the central government for a solution to the matter.

He recalled that upon receiving news of the death while in Japan, where he was leading an official delegation in which Amneet was also a member, he immediately consoled the officer’s wife and sent officials to assist the family.

The CM’s assertion comes at a time when the case has drawn significant political attention.

After Congress leader Sonia Gandhi expressed solidarity with Amneet and wrote to her, terming Puran Kumar’s death a reminder that the “prejudiced and biased” attitude of those in power deprives even the most senior officials of social justice, her party MPs visited the officer’s house to mourn the death and express solidarity with the family.

Kumar, 52, a 2001-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, allegedly shot himself dead at his residence in Chandigarh Sector 11 on October 7.

Chandigarh Police on Friday constituted a six-member special investigation team (SIT) to investigate the alleged suicide. However, Kumar’s family is yet to give a nod for conducting the post-mortem, with his wife questioning “incomplete information” in the FIR.

Kumar was recently posted as the inspector general of the Police Training Centre (PTC) in Rohtak’s Sunaria. He left behind an alleged suicide note naming senior officers and detailing the “mental harassment” and humiliation he faced over the last few years. In his nine-page ‘final note’, Kumar named eight senior IPS officers, including Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya, for allegedly harassing and maligning him. The Haryana government transferred Bijarniya on Saturday.