CHANDIGARH: Two days after the suicide of senior Haryana IPS officer Y Puran Kumar and nearly 24 hours after his wife, IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, filed a formal complaint, Chandigarh Police on Thursday night registered an FIR against “all those named in the final note” on charges of abetment to suicide and sections of SC/ST Prevention of Atrocities Act.Chandigarh IG Pushpendra Kumar confirmed the registration of a case. The FIR (No. 156) was filed at Sector 11 police station on the basis of the eight-page suicide note, in which Kumar named eight senior IPS officers, with specific reference to Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Singh Kapur and Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarania for allegedly harassing and maligning him.
When TOI asked IG Kumar if the DGP was named in the FIR, he only said the case was registered against “everyone mentioned in the suicide note”.60 hrs have passed since body found, autopsy still awaitedPolice are under pressure to act as the dead officer’s family is learnt to have refused to perform the last rites until “justice is served”. Puran Kumar’s wife, 2001-batch IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, personally requested Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini to suspend and arrest all the officials named by her husband in his suicide note.The post-mortem wasn’t conducted on Thursday either. It’s been more than 60 hours since Kumar’s body was found. Though family consent is not mandatory, police haven’t gone ahead with the autopsy.There was intense speculation on Thursday that Haryana govt might send DGP Kapur and Bijarnia on long leave to defuse the tension. Sources say govt is even considering appointing an ‘officiating DGP’ during this period. However, no orders in this regard had been issued by the state till the filing of this report.Even Haryana Civil Services Officers Association wrote to Saini demanding speedy action on Amneet’s complaint and suggested that it was “absolutely necessary to temporarily remove the accused officers from positions of power to alleviate apprehension of undue influence over junior ranking investigating officers”.It was in the backdrop of this mounting pressure that the DGP went to the CM’s residence on Thursday afternoon, where Saini held a high-level meeting with him, chief secretary Anurag Rastogi and chief principal secretary to the CM Rajesh Khullar. Sources said Kapur presented some “strong evidence” to the CM to support his case on the allegations against him in Kunar’s suicide note.The suicide is triggering aftershocks across the country. In a stinging post, Congress MP Rahul Gandhi said: “The suicide of Haryana IPS officer Y Puran Kumar is a symbol of the deepening social poison that is crushing humanity in the name of caste. When an IPS officer faces humiliation and injustice due to his caste, imagine what an ordinary Dalit must go through.”National Commission for Scheduled Castes took suo motu note of the incident and asked for an action-taken report from Chandigarh cops. A large number of Dalit organizations also met the Haryana CM on Thursday, demanding action against those responsible for driving Puran Kumar to suicide.Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge tweeted: “BJP’s Manuwadi system has become a curse for the SC, ST, OBC, and weaker sections of this country. The news of the forced suicide of Haryana’s senior Dalit IPS officer, ADGP Y. Pooran Kumar, is not only shocking but also a horrifying testimony to social injustice, inhumanity, and insensitivity. My deepest condolences to the family.”
