Haryana police officer Y Puran Kumar’s death is not about the respect of one family but all Dalits, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Tuesday. The Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to act immediately in the case.
Addressing reporters after meeting the family of the senior police officer who was found with a gunshot wound in his Chandigarh home last week, Gandhi said there was systematic discrimination against Kumar to demoralise him and damage his career.
“A wrong message is being sent out to Dalits… that no matter how successful you are, if you are Dalit, you can be oppressed and crushed,” the former Congress president said.
Y Puran Kumar ‘suicide’
The Chandigarh Police on 10 October formed a six-member Special Investigation Team (SIT) to investigate the alleged ‘suicide’ of senior Haryana police officer Y Puran Kumar for “prompt, impartial and thorough investigation” in a time-bound manner.
The development came a day after the police filed an FIR based on a ‘final note’ left behind by Y Puran Kumar, who was found dead at his residence in the Union Territory on 7 October.
The FIR was filed late on Thursday night, hours after the late officer’s wife, Amneet Puran Kumar, sought Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini’s intervention in filing an FIR and suspension of those named by her husband in the ‘final note.’
Rahul Gandhi stated that the Haryana chief minister has not fulfilled his commitment to a free and fair inquiry. He said there was a lot of pressure on Kumar’s family, particularly his two daughters. Rahul’s visit came amid stepped-up attacks by the opposition against the Haryana government over Kumar’s alleged suicide.
In an eight-page final note purportedly left behind by him, the 52-year-old accused eight senior IPS officers, including Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and now transferred Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya, of “blatant caste-based discrimination, targeted mental harassment, public humiliation and atrocities”.
