Chandigarh: A 31-member committee, formed to ensure acceptance of demands of the family of Haryana IPS officer Y Puran Kumar, who allegedly committed suicide, has given a 48-hour ultimatum to the Chandigarh administration and the Haryana government to remove state police chief Shatrujeet Kapur from his post.
Kapur is one of the police officers against whom Kumar’s wife, IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, has sought for allegedly abetting his suicide.
A decision in this regard was taken by the committee at a mahapanchayat held at Guru Ravidas Bhavan in Sector 20 here on Sunday. A heavy police presence was seen around the venue of the event.
“The Haryana DGP and the former Rohtak SP should be arrested in the matter. The Haryana government should remove the DGP from his post. We have given 48 hours after which we will decide the next course of action,” a spokesperson of the committee told reporters here after the mahapanchayat.
Despite six days having passed since Kumar, who was last posted as IG at Police Training Centre in Rohtak’s Sunaria, died, his post-mortem examination and cremation have not been conducted yet, as the family has refused consent until their demands are met.
The event also witnessed unruly scenes after former Haryana MP Raj Kumar Saini, who had floated his own outfit a few years ago, allegedly made a controversial remark, which triggered an angry reaction from the gathering. Order was restored after organisers appealed to maintain calm.
A message was read on behalf of the IPS officer’s family, appealing for support in their fight for justice.
Gurmail Singh, who is also a member of the committee, said the demand for a judicial probe into the matter was also raised during the mahapanchayat.
Karamvir, another member of the committee, said, “The family and the Dalit community are apprehensive that if the last rites of the deceased officer are conducted, then the government may not act against the accused”.
“If justice is not given to the family, then we will decide the next course of action…We want to know what the Special Investigation Team, which has been constituted by Chandigarh police, has so far done in this case,” he said.
He said an association of Safai Karamcharis in Chandigarh has extended support to the family.
Fifty-two-year-old Kumar, a 2001-batch Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, allegedly shot himself dead at his Sector 11, Chandigarh, residence on October 7.
In an eight-page ‘final note’ purportedly left behind by Kumar, he named eight senior IPS officers, including Haryana DGP Kapur and former Rohtak Superintendent of Police Narendra Bijarniya, for allegedly harassing and maligning his image.
The deceased has also given accounts of the alleged harassment, including caste-based discrimination, by some other officers.
The Haryana government had on Saturday transferred Bijarniya and appointed IPS officer Surinder Singh Bhoria in his place.
In her complaint to Chandigarh Police on Wednesday, the deceased officer’s wife sought an FIR against Kapur and Bijarniya under Section 108 (abetment to suicide) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and relevant provisions of the SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, demanding their immediate arrest.
She had claimed on Friday that the FIR lodged in the case contained “incomplete information”, and sought its amendment to “accurately reflect the names of all the accused”.
In a letter to Chandigarh Senior Superintendent of Police Kanwardeep Kaur, the officer’s wife said that the accused should be named in the FIR, and specifically mentioned Kapur and Bijarniya.
“As per my complaint, the names of the accused (1) Shatrujeet Kapur and (2) Narendra Bijarniya have not been entered in the FIR, which was the trigger point for his (Puran Kumar’s) suicide,” Amneet had said in the plea to the SSP.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway from the Haryana government to persuade Kumar’s wife to agree to the post-mortem examination and cremation.
On Saturday, Haryana ministers Krishan Lal Panwar, Krishan Kumar Bedi, Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi, and principal secretary to the CM, Rajesh Khullar and some other senior officers of the Haryana government met Kumar’s family, seemingly an attempt to persuade them.
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