The murky deaths within the Haryana Police

Trigger warning: The following article has references to suicide. Please keep away from studying in the event you really feel distressed by the topic.

Eight days had handed since Y. Puran Kumar, an officer of the Indian Police Service (IPS) from Haryana had allegedly died by suicide. But in home 132 in Sector 24 in Chandigarh, his spouse, Amneet P. Kumar, an Indian Administrative Service officer (IAS), mentioned she had not but accepted the lack of her husband. Amneet sat in stoic silence, greeting political leaders, colleagues, and even strangers who had come to indicate solidarity.

Amneet, who serves as Commissioner and Secretary within the Haryana authorities, had refused to permit the postmortem of her husband till two of the important thing accused within the case — Haryana Director General of Police (DGP) Shatrujeet Kapur and Rohtak Superintendent of Police (SP) Narendra Bijarniya — have been arrested. Their names featured among the many dozens of names of officers within the observe that Kumar allegedly wrote earlier than he died.

On the ninth day after Puran’s dying, which occurred on October 7, Amneet gave her consent to the postmortem. She mentioned in an announcement to the press that the Chandigarh Police had assured her that they might “conduct a good, clear and neutral investigation” and that the Haryana authorities had dedicated to “taking acceptable motion in opposition to any erring officers in the end of legislation.” Puran’s two daughters carried out the final rites. The officer’s service uniform and cap rested briefly on his stays. A police contingent offered a guard of honour.

Despite the federal government’s guarantees, Amit Rattan, Puran’s brother-in-law and an MLA of the Aam Aadmi Party from the Punjab Bathinda (Rural) constituency, believes that the probe is being performed “only for the sake of it.”

“The one who died was not simply any odd individual; he was a police officer who was working for the folks of the nation,” he mentioned. “The message that has gone to our neighborhood, particularly the youth, is that it doesn’t matter how succesful or clever chances are you’ll be in the event you belong to a Scheduled Caste (SC) neighborhood; even if you’re a senior officer within the administration, you possibly can be suppressed. They will likely be scared.”

Puran was a robust man, Rattan added. “He spent 25 years in service as a embellished and revered officer. So, what breaks a person like him?”

A dying and its aftermath

According to the police, Puran, 52, a 2001-batch officer serving as Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Sunaria, in Rohtak district of Haryana, was discovered useless at his non-public home in Chandigarh. When the tragedy occurred, Amneet was in Japan, as a part of a delegation led by Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini.

The subsequent day, Amneet, who had rushed house, wrote to the Chandigarh Police demanding {that a} First Information Report (FIR) be registered and that Kapur and Bijarniya be named in it.

In her grievance, she wrote that whereas official narratives urged dying by suicide, she had seen how senior officers had repeatedly humiliated, harassed, and persecuted her husband.

“The eight-page suicide observe, a doc of a damaged spirit, lays naked these truths and the names of quite a few officers whose relentless actions pushed him to the sting,” she wrote. “This shouldn’t be a case of suicide however a direct results of the persecution of my husband, an officer from the Scheduled Caste neighborhood, by highly effective and high-ranking officers, who used their positions to mentally torture him…” She said that her husband had tried to succeed in out to Kapur and Bijarnia and claimed that Kapur had “hushed up the dialog” and Bijarnia “deliberately didn’t reply” his name.

Amneet additionally mentioned that earlier than Puran’s dying, a false FIR had been registered in opposition to a workers member of her husband, Sushil, “underneath a well-planned conspiracy”, to implicate him.

The subsequent day, the police registered an FIR. However, Amneet mentioned there have been “irregularities” within the FIR and that solely “diluted” sections of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989, had been added. Consequently, the police added extra stringent sections of the Act to the FIR. On October 10, the Chandigarh Police shaped a Special Investigation Team to probe the case.

In the observe allegedly written by Puran, accessed by The Hindu, there are usually not solely names of officers, but additionally accounts of the alleged harassment. The observe additionally said that the representations and complaints Puran allegedly made in opposition to these officers have been ignored.

The observe learn, “Continued blatant caste-based discrimination, focused psychological harassment, public humiliation, and atrocities by senior officers in Haryana since August 2020 [have now become] insufferable… All that I anticipated and requested vide varied representations and complaints was fairness of therapy as an IPS officer of the Haryana cadre with regard to sure points. Instead of addressing the identical, all my representations and complaints have been ignored and are getting used vindictively… in opposition to me…”

As political events and social teams mounted stress on the federal government to ship justice, the Haryana authorities eliminated Bijarniya from his posting on October 11. They didn’t give him a brand new posting. Three days later, they despatched Kapur on go away. They gave Om Parkash Singh, a 1992-batch IPS officer, extra cost as DGP.

After the incident, a committee known as ‘Justice for Y. Puran Kumar’ was shaped by outfits together with the Kabir Mahasabha and the Ambedkar Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha, which work for the empowerment of marginalised sections of society. The committee held a mahapanchayat (assembly) in Chandigarh to construct stress on the federal government to behave in opposition to the accused.

O.P. Chopra, a member of this committee, who serves as president of the Ambedkar Sanyukt Sangharsh Morcha, mentioned that Puran’s dying highlights the injustices perpetuated in opposition to SCs. “His dying is indicative of systemic failures and of societal discrimination in opposition to sure communities,” he mentioned.

Allegations and counter-allegations

The drama that unfolded in Chandigarh following Puran’s dying has its roots in Rohtak, 60 kilometres north-west of Delhi. Puran, who served as IGP, Rohtak Range, for about six months, was transferred as IGP, Police Training Centre, Sunaria, a few week earlier than the incident.

Puran allegedly killed himself a day after a FIR was registered in Rohtak in opposition to his private safety officer, Sushil, on costs of extortion. The FIR, lodged by Praveen Bansal, a liquor contractor, mentioned that Sushil, claiming to be a detailed confidant of the IGP, had demanded ₹2.5 lakh as month-to-month assist in return for police safety.

The FIR, registered by Bansal at Rohtak’s Urban Estate police station, mentioned, “He (Sushil) known as me to satisfy with the IGP in June. He spoke to me in a threatening tone, saying if I needed to function a liquor enterprise in Rohtak, I must make a month-to-month fee to the IGP, Y. Puran Kumar, or else he would file costs in opposition to me, together with different criminals and contractors, for liquor smuggling.”

The FIR added that the policeman had mounted stress on the complainant to make the fee and had requested him to satisfy the IGP once more and seal the deal. Bansal additionally submitted a pen drive containing the voice document and CCTV footage of his alleged assembly with Sushil on July 9. The identical day, the police arrested Sushil.

Rohtak, which was the epicentre of violence and arson throughout the Jat reservation agitation in 2016, was briefly on the brink of a doable caste face-off after Puran’s dying. Khaps and SC organisations held protests within the metropolis, displaying their assist for the rival events within the case. On October 12, after Bijarniya, a Jat, was transferred, representatives of assorted khaps, gram panchayats, college students, and commerce organisations gathered at Rohtak’s Mansarover Park, demanding that the officer not be made a scapegoat and that an neutral probe be performed into the matter.

This occurred a day after a bunch of protesters, comprising the Dalit Adhikar Manch, the Janwadi Mahila Samiti, the Centre of Indian Trade Unions (CITU), and the All-India Khet Mazdoor Union, took out a march within the metropolis demanding a judicial inquiry into the circumstances that led to the dying of Puran, which, they mentioned, was an “institutional homicide” and never a “suicide”.

Another police dying

Two days later, Assistant Sub-Inspector Sandeep Lather, who was a part of the staff that had arrested Sushil within the extortion case, killed himself at his maternal uncle’s village, Ladoth.

In a observe and a six-minute video, Lather expressed his frustration over what he mentioned was an try to provide a caste color to the suicide of a “corrupt” officer, Puran.

“A businessman raised his voice in opposition to crime, however he’s being pressured. No one desires to convey out his fact into the open. Politics is being performed; the cremation shouldn’t be being performed. A giant fact is being prevented from being out within the public area. But I can’t let this occur. The fact should come out. He had performed fallacious. He will bear the fruits of his wrongdoings,” he mentioned.

In the four-page observe, Lather, a resident of Jind’s Julana, alleged that Puran had been corrupt throughout his posting as IGP, Rohtak. Some IAS officers in Haryana have been additionally corrupt, however just a few sincere officers had managed to curb it to an extent underneath the Bharatiya Janata Party regime, he claimed. He added within the video that the nation would “get up” when he “sacrifices himself on the trail to fact”. He additionally described Bijarniya and Kapur as “sincere”.

Rohtak SP Surinder Singh Bhoria described Lather as a “hard-working” and “sincere” policeman, including that he was like a “member of the family”.

Political considerations

On October 15, an FIR was registered within the case pertaining to Lather’s dying after Chief Minister Saini visited his household and warranted them of justice. A supply claimed that 4 folks, together with Amneet, Rattan, and Sushil, who’s in jail within the extortion case, have been named within the FIR and that the cost in opposition to them was abetment of suicide. Lather’s spouse, Santosh, is the complainant and mentioned she doesn’t have a replica of the FIR. The Rohtak Police spokesperson refused to touch upon the contents of the FIR.

Meanwhile, the Chairman of the SC Department of the All-India Congress Committee, Rajendra Pal, posted a video on his social media account, elevating questions over Lather’s dying. He mentioned that it smacked of a deep-rooted conspiracy since there appeared to be no legitimate purpose for the policeman to have taken such an excessive step.

“Lather accused Puran Kumar of indulging in corruption. He himself was concerned within the investigation of the corruption case, and he may have uncovered the IPS officer by bringing out the reality with info. The IPS officer was already useless and posed no risk to him. In his video, Sandeep didn’t make any allegations in opposition to the IPS officer’s spouse and brother-in-law issuing any threats to him. So why did he [die by] suicide,” he requested.

On October 17, demonstrations have been held on the problem. The nationwide vp of the Kisan Sabha, Inderjit Singh, mentioned that the deaths of Puran and Lather have been simply the “tip of the iceberg”. He alleged {that a} community of organised crime is working underneath the patronage of BJP leaders and bureaucrats, facilitating the buildup of huge illicit wealth.

The vice-president of the CITU in Haryana, Satbir Singh, accused the BJP authorities of resorting to caste polarisation techniques to cowl up its actions. He demanded a high-level probe into the alleged nexus of law enforcement officials, political leaders, and criminals within the State, in addition to a probe into the wealth of the highest bureaucrats and leaders named within the observe allegedly written by Puran.

“This episode has uncovered the huge corruption throughout the forms and its unholy nexus with criminals and politicians. It has shaken the religion of the widespread man within the system. Only a high-level probe can restore that religion,” Singh mentioned.

Those in misery or having suicidal tendencies can search assist and counselling by calling Sanjivini, Society for Mental Health. Telephone: 011-40769002 (Monday-Friday, 10 a.m.-7.30 p.m.) or any of the numbers discovered on this hyperlink