ASI Sandeep Lathar, 41, was found dead after alleged suicide using his service revolver in a room at Ladhot village near Rohtak. A week after Y Puran Kumar, an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer of Haryana, died by suicide at his residence in Chandigarh alleging harassment, a similar death of another cop, an assistant sub-inspector, in Rohtak has left behind major questions about alleged corruption linking the two cases.
The ASI, 41-year-old Sandeep Kumar Lathar was part of the team that arrested another cop in Rohtak who named IPS Kumar in an extortion case. IPS Kumar shot himself soon after that matter came to light. The ASI, who was from Jind’s Julana village, was found dead on Tuesday in an apparent suicide using his service revolver in a room at Ladhot village near his posting station of Rohtak.
He left a “final note” and video purportedly blaming IPS officer Y Puran Kumar for his move. When asked about these going viral, Rohtak SP Surendra Singh Bhoria said, “A forensic investigation is underway after which we will share more details.” The 6.26-minute video, which has been shared on WhatsApp and other platforms, purportedly shows ASI Lathar saying Puran Kumar, who was posted as Inspector General of Rohtak range until just days before his death, “took bribes to exclude names of accused from cases as serious as murder”.
Puran Kumar in his “final note” — and his wife, IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, in her complaint thereafter — alleged that he was being harassed by senior officers including the state police chief, DGP Shatrujeet Kapur, due to his being Dalit or a “lower” caste.
But the video by Lathar, who happens to be from the Jat community, said there was no caste angle expressly in Puran Kumar’s death. He pointedly referred to the corruption-cum-extortion case registered in Rohtak recently, in which a junior cop had named Puran Kumar as the beneficiary of the money he was collecting from a local businessman. Lathar was part of the team that caught head constable Sushil Kumar after a complaint filed by liquor contractor Praveen Bansal. In the video, he can be seen saying he could no longer bear to see “such massive corruption”, and was sacrificing his life “for honesty”, referencing freedom fighter Bhagat Singh.
Further in the video — authenticity of which was still being probed by the police — the ASI said Puran Kumar and “some IAS officers such as his wife” wanted to sideline the DGP and others to “continue with their corrupt ways”. Amneet P Kumar had not yet reacted to this at the time of filing of this report late evening.
Puran Kumar’s death has sparked a major political controversy, and even the Leader of Opposition, Rahul Gandhi, met his family in Chandigarh earlier on Tuesday. The state’s BJP government led by CM Nayab Singh Saini has sent the DGP on leave for now, while the case is being investigated by the Chandigarh UT police. The FIR sections include those from the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act.
Rahul Gandhi said after meeting the family that the incident had sent a “wrong message to Dalits that no matter how successful you are, if you are Dalit, you can be crushed”. He also said that the case was not just about the respect of the IPS officer’s family, but of all Dalits. CM Saini has promised strict action in the IPS officer’s suicide case, asserting that no one would be spared for being in a position of authority.
Leaders ranging from major Dalit faces such as union minister Ramdas Athawale and UP MP Chandrashekhar Azad, to Congress’s Kumari Selja and Punjab CM Bhagwant Mann have met Puran Kumar’s family. His body remains in the mortuary as the family has refused post-mortem or cremation until strict action is taken.
