Wife Of Deceased ASI Claims Senior Cops Shielding Corrupt Officers, Demands CBI Inquiry

An FIR filed in the suicide case claims that Assistant Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar Lathar was "forced" to commit himself by "undue pressure" from Amneet P. Kumar, the widow of deceased IPS officer Y Puran Kumar, MLA Amit Rattan, and two other police officers.

The FIR was filed in response to a complaint made by Lathar's wife, who made grave accusations against her brother, the Bathinda Rural MLA, and IAS officer Amneet Kumar.

Earlier this month in Chandigarh, Puran Kumar also took his own life.

Santosh, Sandeep's wife, has also requested that the entire incident be investigated by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Rattan and Amneet Kumar were unavailable for comment.

On October 14, ASI Lathar, who was assigned to the Rohtak cyber unit, is said to have shot himself. In a note he left behind, he accused the late IPS officer Y Puran Kumar, who also worked in the same district, of corruption.

He had also mentioned Puran Kumar's wife, a prominent administrator in Haryana, in a six-minute video.

The arrest of IG Puran Kumar's gunman, head constable Sushil Kumar, was facilitated by ASI Lathar.

Sushil Kumar was taken into custody in relation to a case concerning a spirits contractor's bribery complaint. The contractor claimed that while Sushil Kumar was assigned to Rohtak, he had applied for Rs 2.5 lakh using Puran Kumar's name.

On October 7, Puran Kumar, 52, who had just been assigned to the position of Inspector General at the Police Training Centre in Sunaria, Rohtak, shot himself in the head at his Chandigarh home.

Puran Kumar claimed in a "final note" that senior police officers in Haryana had harassed him and discriminated against him based on his caste. The police have filed a case in this regard.

After his wife, Santosh, submitted a complaint, a separate case of abetment of suicide was launched on October 15 in relation to the death of ASI Sandeep Kumar Lathar.

IAS officer Amneet P. Kumar, Bathinda Rural MLA Rattan, Puran Kumar's assailant Sushil Kumar, Sunil, another police officer assigned to the Rohtak IG office, and an unidentified individual were all named in the FIR.

Santosh claimed that Sunil Kumar, another police officer assigned to the IPS officer's office in Rohtak, Sushil Kumar, Puran Kumar's gunman, and others "were continuously pressuring and threatening" her husband both before and after the corruption case was registered.

To avoid government action against them, Puran Kumar's family and "some other corrupt officers" were exerting "undue pressure" to stop these proceedings and were seeking action against "honest officers", she said.

"Because of this, IG Puran Kumar committed suicide. IG's wife Amneet P Kumar and her brother, Amit Rattan, did not get the post-mortem of Kumar's body done in order to put pressure on the government to arrest honest officers and employees of the police department..." she claimed.

Santosh said that while Sushil Kumar was arrested, others were yet to be arrested. She added that this is why her husband, ASI Sandeep Lathar, committed suicide.

"This is why my husband took this extreme step and ended his life. This is a fight between honest and corrupt officers," she wrote in the complaint.

Santosh asked authorities to look into the properties owned by them and the accused to determine "who is corrupt and who is honest". "There should be a CBI probe into the entire episode," she said. 

With PTI inputs.