Gurugram: Even seven days after his alleged suicide, senior Haryana IPS officer, Y. Puran Kumar is yet to be cremated. Despite several high-level meetings, the stalemate between the IPS officer’s wife, IAS officer Amneet P. Kumar, and the Haryana government continues; she refuses to even collect the body from the morgue, and the government refuses to give in to her demand of arresting the DGP and SP accused of caste-based discrimination in Puran Kumar’s purported suicide note.
The situation is already an embarrassment for CM Nayab Singh Saini, who is preparing for PM Narendra Modi’s rally on October 17 at Sonipat to mark one year since the BJP retained power in Haryana.
After opposition leaders including Congress parliamentary board chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Lok Sabha Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi and others linked the case with alleged atrocities on Dalits under the BJP rule, Dalit organisations are building up the pressure.
On Sunday, at a panchayat organised by a 31-member committee (set up to support the bereaved family) of Dalit organisations at a Chandigarh gurdwara, a 48-hour ultimatum was given to the government to fulfil Amneet’s demands.
They want Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Singh Kapur and Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya to be arrested—Puran Kumar had in his purported final note accused them and 13 other officers of driving him to suicide with caste-based harassment, humiliation and a false case of corruption.
The SIT constituted by the Chandigarh Police Sunday sent a written request to the IPS officer’s wife asking her to identify the body at PGIMER so that postmortem could begin. But she refused.
In a video that has gone viral, the IPS officer’s wife is seen telling a man who informed her of a minister’s impending visit that she did not want to meet anyone. “The government is free to do whatever it wants to do to Y. Puran Kumar’s body,” she says in the video.
Haryana ministers Krishan Panwar and Krishan Bedi, and IAS officers Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, Additional Chief Secretary (Home Department) Sumita Misra, and even the CM’s Chief Principal Secretary, Rajesh Khullar, have met Amneet Kumar. The Haryana government Saturday also shifted Bijarniya and offered to send Kapur on temporary leave, but the deceased IPS officer’s family is adamant on the arrests.
Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment and national president of the Republican Party of India, an ally of the NDA government at the Centre, Ramdas Athawale also met Amneet at her Sector 24 residence. Speaking to the media, he supported the IPS officer’s family’s demand.
Later, he also met Haryana CM Saini. He told the media after his meeting with Saini that the IPS officer’s wife wants arrests before the postmortem, while the chief minister wants the postmortem first so that the investigation can proceed. “I have come here to get justice for the family, as this is my responsibility as a minister for social justice and empowerment,” Athawale told the media in Chandigarh.
Union Minister Manohar Lal Khattar’s media adviser Sudesh Kataria also visited the family to pay homage to the deceased IPS officer. Contacted by ThePrint on the phone, Kataria said that he could not comment on how and when the deadlock would be resolved, as he had come there to discharge his social responsibility.
Ravneet Bittu, another Union minister, told the media in Chandigarh that Saini had assured him that the government would soon take a decision.
Sources close to the 31-member committee said that the family could relent in case the state government removes the DGP, as it has the Rohtak SP. But so far, the BJP government led by CM Nayab Saini has given no indication of a climbdown.
A police officer speaking on condition of anonymity told ThePrint that investigation is the sole prerogative of the police and having served as a district magistrate, IPS Puran Kumar’s wife Amneet Kumar must be aware of it.
“In the course of investigation, if the police see evidence of reasonable suspicion, credible information, or direct involvement in a crime, especially a cognisable offence, they take a decision to arrest the person. Also, if the arrest is necessary to prevent further crime, ensure proper investigation, prevent evidence tampering, or secure the individual’s presence in court, they arrest the person. But the complainant cannot demand that the police arrest X, Y or Z. Once the FIR is registered under the relevant sections and an SIT has been formed, they should trust the process. And in case they don’t trust the police, they can demand a CBI probe,” he added.
Sanjay Sharma, spokesperson of the Haryana BJP said the BJP government is taking the issue very seriously. “A very senior IPS officer has died and he has made serious allegations against several officers. On the complaint of the officer’s wife, an FIR has been registered against all those mentioned in the IPS officer’s suicide note. The FIR has been registered under the sections of the BNS and the SC/ST Act that the officer’s wife wanted. Rohtak SP has been removed from his post on the demand of the family. An SIT of senior officers has been constituted to investigate the case. In case any of those mentioned in the FIR is found involved in the crime, the law will take its course against them,” he said.
A senior IAS officer told ThePrint that though their association has already passed a resolution requesting the Haryana government and the Chandigarh Police to address the issues raised by Amneet Kumar, the family’s concerns seem to stem from the state government’s reluctance to shift the DGP.
“Isn’t this a travesty of justice that an IAS officer of the rank of Commissioner and Secretary has lost trust in the system? If that is the case, think what the general public must have in mind when they have to deal with this system,” he added.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)