Govt tries to broker peace; family refuses to cremate body

With the police registering an FIR against senior government functionaries, including serving and retired IAS and IPS officers, on the complaint of IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, wife of deceased IPS officer Y Puran Kumar, the state government today sent emissaries to the family to proceed with the post-mortem and cremation.

Sources said state minister Krishan Lal Panwar visited the family in the morning to urge them to allow the post-mortem of the deceased officer since the demand for an FIR against the officers named in the suicide note had been met.

However, the family members conveyed to him that they would not do so since their second main demand of sending DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarnia on leave was yet to be accepted.

“Members of the community met CM Nayab Singh Saini, and in keeping with the demands of the family, as also the community, an FIR was registered yesterday itself. Today, the Chandigarh Police have constituted an SIT as well. The CM is taking personal interest in monitoring the case since it is a huge tragedy for the late officer’s family. Justice will be delivered,” Panwar told ‘The Tribune’.

In the afternoon, Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, accompanied by Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Sumita Mishra, called on the family to urge them to consider going in for the post-mortem of the deceased officer since it was already over three days.

They stayed for over an hour, trying to convince the family. They also conveyed that the government was open to considering their other demands once they performed the last rites.

“However, just as the family conveyed its sentiments to the minister, they conveyed their reservations about the same to the two senior-most officers of the government. They have reiterated that the DGP and the SP have neither been transferred nor have they been asked to proceed on leave,” a close family aide stated.

Sources said the government wanted to resolve the matter at the earliest and send out a message that it stood by the late officer’s family, while also ensuring that no officers were “wrongly” punished.

Haryana Tribune