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Haryana Congress leaders demand probe into IPS officer’s ‘forced suicide’
Nine-page ‘final note’ left behind by Puran Kumar names “senior officers” and cites “mental harassment and humiliation” he faced over the past few years.
Congress leaders Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Randeep Singh Surjewala on Thursday demanded an impartial investigation into the “forced suicide” of Dalit IPS officer Y Puran Kumar, 52, in Chandigarh on October 7.
The 2001-batch Haryana-cadre officer was found dead with a gunshot wound in the basement of his private residence in Sector 11, Chandigarh, on Tuesday afternoon but his autopsy is yet to be conducted as his bureaucrat wife, Amneet P Kumar, has demanded an FIR be registered on her complaint that accuses state director general of police Shatrujeet Kapur and Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarnia of abetment to suicide.
The nine-page “final note” left behind by Puran Kumar names “senior officers” and details “mental harassment” and humiliation he faced over the past few years, according to sources.
In a statement, Hooda, who is the leader of opposition in the Haryana assembly and a former chief minister, said: “The culprits should not be spared and no innocent should be harmed. It is the state government’s responsibility to ensure justice in this case. Suicide of such a senior police officer is a very tragic incident. This incident has shaken the entire state. If such a senior police officer is not safe today, one can imagine the plight of ordinary citizens.”
Rajya Sabha member Randeep Surjewala said the case of “forced suicide was both shocking and deeply tragic”.
In a post on X, the Congress leader said though chief minister Nayab Singh Saini remains silent, it is hoped that the Chandigarh administration and the Union home ministry will listen to the plea of Puran Kumar’s wife and ensure justice is delivered. “Is Haryana’s BJP government so prejudiced that a Dalit IPS officer neither receives a hearing nor justice?” Surjewala said.
Earlier in the afternoon when Saini went to offer condolences, Puran Kumar’s wife Amneet handed over a strongly worded letter to him, demanding the immediate registration of an FIR, the arrest of the accused named in her husband’s suicide note and her complaint besides lifelong security for her family.
The letter, marked urgent and confidential, expressed anguish over a “grave injustice and complete administrative inaction” even after more than 48 hours of her husband’s death. The letter accuses Chandigarh Police of failing to register an FIR despite the presence of a detailed nine-page suicide note that, according to her, clearly names senior Haryana officials responsible for the officer’s “harassment, humiliation and targeted mental torture”.
Amneet Kumar is commissioner and secretary in the department of foreign cooperation, Haryana. She was also part of the Japan delegation, led by the chief minister, when she heard the news of her husband’s death and returned to India on Wednesday.
