Gurugram: Haryana government late Sunday evening relieved IPS officer Shatrujeet Singh Kapur from his duties as Director General of Police (DGP), a move that comes against the backdrop of allegations levelled against him in connection with a fellow IPS officer’s death by suicide.
The Haryana home department issued an order dated 14 December, directing Kapur to continue holding the charge of chairman, Haryana Police Housing Corporation, Panchkula—a position he was already handling alongside his responsibilities as DGP.
The order, signed by Dr Sumita Misra, Additional Chief Secretary (home department), transferred his policing duties to Om Prakash Singh, IPS of the 1992 batch, who has been appointed as officiating Director General of Police (HoPD) in addition to his present duties as Joint Director/FSL, Madhuban.
Earlier, on 14 October, when Kapur was sent on leave in the wake of registration of an FIR against him and others over IPS Y. Puran Kumar’s death by suicide and the refusal by Kumar’s family to allow his postmortem till action was taken against those named in the final not left by the deceased officer, Singh was appointed officiating DGP.
With Shatrujeet Singh Kapur’s two-month leave having ended Saturday, he is expected to join Monday as chairman of the Haryana Police Housing Corporation.
The 1990-batch IPS officer, who still has approximately ten months of service remaining before retirement, would normally have continued in his position. But circumstances surrounding the Y. Puran Kumar suicide case appear to have prompted the state government to seek a change.
The move to relieve Kapur also follows a bureaucratic setback the state government faced in its efforts to appoint a new DGP.
Haryana had earlier sent a proposal to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the selection of a new police chief, but the commission returned it with a pointed observation: such proposals should only be submitted when the state is actually anticipating a vacancy.
Haryana had prepared a panel of five officers from the 1990 to 1993 batches of the IPS: Kapur, Sanjeev Kumar Jain (1991 batch), Ajay Kumar Singhal (1992 batch), Alok Mittal and Arshinder Singh Chawla (both 1993 batch) and sent it to UPSC as a part of the process of selection of new DGP as provided under the Supreme Court-mandated guidelines.
With the officiating DGP Om Prakash Singh set to retire on 31 December, the state government has a legitimate vacancy on the horizon, thereby opening the door for Haryana to send a fresh proposal to the UPSC for the selection of a permanent DGP through the SC-mandated mechanism.
(Edited by Amrtansh Arora)
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