Haryana: After IGP Puran Kumar’s Death, IAS Officer Wife Alleges Caste Discrimination And Abetment By Senior Police Officials
Chandigarh: A sombre calm enveloped the Sector 24 residence of senior IAS officer Amneet P Kumar on Thursday afternoon as Haryana CM Nayab Singh Saini arrived to offer condolences. Her husband, IGP Y Puran Kumar, a 2001-batch IPS officer, was found dead with a gunshot wound two days earlier — a tragedy that has now turned into a storm over alleged caste-based discrimination and abetment by senior police officers.
Sources indicated that the state government may consider sending DGP Shatrujeet Kapur on leave and appointing an officiating DGP in his place, in view of the allegations.
Amneet handed over a detailed memorandum to the CM demanding the immediate registration of an FIR against Kapur and another senior IPS officer.
She alleged that her husband’s death was the result of “systematic persecution” by powerful figures within the Haryana Police. “The suicide note explicitly names those responsible for creating an atmosphere of harassment, humiliation and mental torture which directly led to this tragic act,” Amneet stated in her memorandum. “This note constitutes a dying declaration and must be treated as crucial evidence demanding immediate legal action.”
Saini, who had just returned from a three-day official visit to Japan, spent nearly 50 minutes with Amneet and her family. He was accompanied by Chief Principal Secretary Rajesh Khullar, Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sumita Misra, and Minister Krishan Lal Panwar. An official statement later said the chief minister assured the family of “appropriate action” and a fair investigation.
Amneet, the commissioner and secretary of the Department of Foreign Cooperation, was herself part of Saini’s Japan delegation when she received the news of her husband’s death. She returned to Chandigarh on Wednesday and has refused to allow the post-mortem until an FIR is registered against the accused officers.
In her complaint to the Chandigarh Police, Amneet said that “powerful, high-ranking officials” were using their influence to obstruct justice. “There is serious apprehension that these officials will try to malign me and my family or implicate me departmentally,” she wrote.
Puran Kumar’s eight-page typed suicide note, titled “Continued Blatant Caste-Based Discrimination, Targeted Mental Harassment, Public Humiliation and Atrocities by Senior Officers since August 2020,” reportedly names nine serving IPS officers, a retired IPS officer and three retired IAS officers. The 52-year-old officerwas regarded as a man of integrity.
Opposition leaders, including Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Rao Narendra Singh, have demanded an impartial probe, saying justice must neither be delayed nor denied.
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