DOUBLE SUICIDE MUDDLE

Two dead cops. Two smoking guns with varying signals. A sordid tale of caste bias and low intrigue unravels among Haryana's top police brass. The stain spreads to society, politics

- By Anilesh S. Mahajan

IPS OFFICER Y. PURAN KUMAR wrote his last letter, and sealed it with a bullet—his service pistol turned on himself, on October 7, in his Chandigarh home. That guaranteed his words ricocheted through Haryana's police establishment, bureaucracy and polity, gaining an amplitude his voice was denied while he lived and spoke. In his eight-page ‘final note’, the Dalit officer detailed years of harassment, humiliation and derailing of his career by seniors.

In short, another iteration of a shockingly familiar tale. At least that’s what it looked like till a most bizarre twist was sprung on the plot. On October 14, Sandeep Lather, an Assistant Sub-Inspector in the team probing the suicide, also ended his life, this time with the darkest invective against Kumar!

A COUNTER-SUICIDE