Caste Discrimination Leads to Suicide by Top Police Officer
Inderjit Singh
People across the country continue to be spellbound and gripped by shock since October 7, the fateful day a senior Haryana IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar ended his life at his Chandigarh residence. He would not have taken this step had the top bureaucracy listened to his complaints pertaining to the unending caste discrimination meted out to him by his seniors. Even more despicable is the fact that his cremation was delayed for nine days due to the insensitivity of the state government which did not taking prompt action against senior most officers including Director General of Police (DGP) whom the deceased had unambiguously named in the eight-page suicide note as responsible for extinguishing his desire to live any more.
Puran Kumar belonged to the Scheduled Caste Valmiki community of Andhra Pradesh. His wife Amneet P Kumar herself is a Haryana cadre IAS officer of 2001 batch. She was part of the team of officers accompanying Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini on a foreign trip when the tragedy occurred. The family was not in favour of post mortem and last rites till strict action was taken against those accused of perpetual institutional persecution on caste basis.
Among those Puran Kumar has named were DGP Shatrujeet Kapoor and Superintendent of Police (SP) Rohtak Narender Birjania. However, far from taking action, the BJP government started dragging its feet at the stage of registering the FIR itself.
Haryana state secretariat of CPI(M) has called the tragic suicide as an institutional murder and said that an impartial probe was necessary to unravel the circumstances in which caste prejudices were being reinforced under the double engine government of BJP.
The details of the circumstances and events revealed in the officer's final note are shocking and point to a pattern of harassment, humiliation and discrimination rooted in caste bias. It is deeply regrettable that a senior police officer had to pay the price of his life for exposing caste bias and oppression, said the party. Party has cautioned the people not to fall prey to the sinister attempts of political vested interests to rouse caste passions aiming at polarisation on this tragic issue. This caution becomes more relevant particularly in the context of unfortunate episode of suicide on October 14 by Assistant Sub-Inspector of Haryana Police Sandeep Singh Lather, posted at Rohtak. He left behind a suicide note and a video casting aspersions on late Y Puran Kumar and praising the DGP and other officers. The political overtones of the suicide note have lent more credence for a demand for judicial inquiry into the entire sequence of the episode.
Deeply saddened by Puran Kumar's tragic suicide, Rajbir Deswal, a former Haryana IPS officer and a well-known writer has vividly reflected upon the tragedy in his article "Why did the system let Puran Kumar down" in The Tribune of October 14. According to him, “several employees, particularly from marginalised backgrounds, have left behind notes narrating stories of humiliation, caste bias, professional hounding and administrative apathy.”
Meanwhile, the body of Y Puran Kumar was cremated on Wednesday afternoon after the autopsy done with family consent. Bereaved family has said that they have been given assurance by the Chandigarh police about full justice to them. However, the entire development took a murkier turn after the cremation. Widow of late Y Puran Kumar, Ms Amneet P Kumar, IAS, and her brother, an MLA of AAP in Punjab, were surprisingly named as abettors in the suicide case of ASI Sandeep Lather. The question here is how and why he ended his life while calling Puran Kumar a corrupt officer when Kumar was already dead. It was even more intriguing that Sandeep Lather, in his suicide note and video applauded BJP for its purported efforts towards ending corruption by appointing honest officers like Shatrujeet Kapur as Haryana police chief. The maternal family of Sandeep Lather has close BJP affiliation, and their village is just adjoining Rohtak city. Sandeep committed suicide in this village rather than his own parental village Julana in Jind district.
The horrific step by Haryana police to implicate the widow of Y Puran Kumar is obviously a shock for the deeply aggrieved family and appears to be an attempt to pressurise them into submission and forcing them to back away from their demand of action against DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and other senior officers named in the suicide note of Y Puran Kumar.
CPI(M) Haryana state secretariat took stock of the situation and inferred that Y Puran Kumar's suicide was the result of his prolonged struggle against the caste based victimization meted out to him and other officers belonging to Scheduled Castes. He has been writing to all concerned authorities and even the National SC-ST Commission for seeking justice but to no consequence and he instead was made a target out of vengeance.
Therefore, his unfortunate and ultimate step of committing suicide, and also the sad suicide case of ASI Sandeep Lather, were clear symptoms of a bigger cover up to prevent institutional corruption scandals under the BJP regime from getting exposed. The secretariat has reiterated the demand for a high-level judicial probe into the prevailing caste-based discrimination, the circumstances around both the suicides as also the properties amassed by top bureaucrats and BJP leaders of Haryana. The party has demanded that the Haryana government desist from hatching conspiracies and allow the judicial probe to unravel the whole truth and bring the real culprits to book.
CPI(M) Delegation Meets Family
A CPI(M) delegation led by General Secretary Com. M.A.Baby and comprising of B.V. Raghavulu, Haryana state secretary Prem Chand, former secretary Inderjit Singh, Punjab state secretariat member Roshan Lal Modgil, Advocate Shahnaz and Advocate Randhir Sathi visited the aggrieved family at their Chandigarh residence and shared their grief. Ms Amneet Puran Kumar, wife of the deceased officer and other members of the family revealed in detail the intolerable circumstances leading to the extreme step of suicide. The hapless family narrated that Haryana government was conducting itself with total arrogance and insensitivity during the whole week by not acknowledging the right of the aggrieved family to seek justice. The government was refusing to abide by the minimum requirements laid down as statutory procedures in the rule book. What was happening with them was precisely the continuity and extension of the victimisation done to late Puran Kumar on a much bigger scale.
The family sources conveyed to the party delegation that only a judicial inquiry by a sitting Supreme Court judge can bring out the truth and identify the real faces behind the tragedy and, it was necessary that at least the DGP and the Rohtak SP were divested of their positions of power.
Com. Baby told the media that the expectations of the family from the government were not unjustified and needed to be met so that last rites of late Puran Kumar could be performed without further delay. He recalled the suicide committed by Rohit Vemula who wanted to become a scientist, but the system took away his life in 2016 at Hyderabad. The same has happened now in Haryana as the situation has worsened during the 11-year BJP regime.
CPI(M) Haryana demands investigation of IPS officer Puran Kumar's death
THE Haryana State Secretariat of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) has expressed deep anguish over the tragic death of senior IPS officer Y Puran Kumar and expressed condolences to his family. The party has termed it as an institutional murder rather than a suicide, attributed to the persistent caste discrimination and oppression in institutions and society.
Haryana State Secretary Prem Chand has demanded that a prompt, impartial investigation be conducted into the circumstances of IPS officer Puran Kumar's death, action be taken against all those responsible, and adequate security be provided to his family.
The details of the circumstances and events revealed in the officer's final note are shocking and point to a pattern of harassment, humiliation and discrimination rooted in caste bias. It is deeply regrettable that a senior police officer had to pay the price of his life for exposing caste bias and oppression. Despite filing written complaints against this discrimination and harassment at all levels of the government, including the then Home Minister, he received no relief. It is noteworthy that the Home Ministry is now held by the Chief Minister himself.
This is not an isolated incident of discrimination; it is deeply ingrained in our society and has been systematically strengthened since the BJP/RSS came to power. Dalits, tribals, and minorities are being attacked in the name of Hindutva and Sanatan Dharma, and instead of taking action against the perpetrators, they are being given administrative and political protection. The latest example of this caste bias was seen in the shoe-throwing attack on the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. When even senior officials and judges are not safe, one can imagine the plight of ordinary citizens.
An FIR has been registered in the Y Puran Kumar case, but it is essential that an impartial investigation is conducted within a time-bound manner and strict action taken against those responsible. It is surprising that the government or the Chief Minister have not yet publicly stated anything or assured the public about concrete steps they will take to change this situation.
The CPI(M) Haryana has called upon all sections of society to raise their voice against this indifference of the government so that it is forced to assure the public that it will govern in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution and work to eliminate all forms of discrimination. It has appealed to all mass organisations, social organisations, enlightened citizens, and other sections to raise their united voice against all forms of discrimination and prejudice.
