Another Hry cop death: ASI probing IPS officer's suicide

A Haryana police assistant sub-inspector was found dead with a gunshot wound on Tuesday along with a purported suicide note accusing of corruption the late inspector general Y Puran Kumar, the same senior officer whose alleged suicide exactly a week earlier put the state police's top brass under lens for casteism and bias.

- Sunil Rahar

Sandeep Lathar, a 41-year-old who hailed from the Jat community, accused Kumar, a Dalit, and his family of widespread graft in a four-page note and six-minute video, claiming he had "ample evidence" against the senior officer. HT could not independently verify the veracity of either the note or the video.

Lathar, who was originally from Julana in Jind, was part of the Rohtak CIA-2 team that intercepted and arrested Kumar's associate on October 6 following a corruption complaint. IGP Kumar, 52, was found dead at his Chandigarh residence the next day.

Tuesday's death plunges Haryana police into murkier waters marked by conflicting allegations that span corruption, casteism and harassment - IGP Puran Kumar had named eight senior officials in a note he left behind on October 7, including the state's police chief Shatrujeet Kapur.

Kapur was "sent on leave" by the state government late on Monday. Kumar's wife, senior Haryana bureaucrat Amneet P Kumar, has refused to give consent for an autopsy, demanding the arrest of Kapur and nowsuspended Rohtak police superintendent Narendra Bijarniya.

Late in the evening, similar scenes played out at Lather's uncle's house in Rohtak's Ladhot village, where his body has been kept, with his family refusing to hand it over for autopsy.

Lathar's cousin Sanjay Deswal said the family has kept the body at Ladhot village and will give permission for last rites only after an FIR is registered.