ASI Sandeep Kumar Lathe, Y Puran Kumar

CHANDIGARH: In a new development in the suicide case of Assistant Sub-Inspector (ASI) Sandeep Kumar, his wife, Santosh, has made serious allegations, claiming that her husband had been under intense mental stress for nearly a week before he took his own life on 14 October. According to her complaint, on which an FIR has been registered for abetment to suicide, the pressure allegedly exerted by the family of deceased IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar — including his wife, IAS officer Amneet P. Kumar, her brother and MLA Amit Rattan, and a relative posted with the Commission for Scheduled Castes — drove her husband to the extreme step.

Santosh filed the complaint at Rohtak’s Sadar Police Station on 15 October. The FIR names Amneet P. Kumar, MLA Amit Rattan, and two police personnel, Sunil Kumar and Sushil Kumar, among others. She has also demanded a CBI investigation to ensure what she described as a “fair and transparent probe”.

According to the FIR, a copy of which has been seen by The Times of India, “Some time ago, an FIR in a corruption case was registered at Police Station Urban Estate, Rohtak. My husband, ASI Sandeep Kumar, was part of the investigation team in that case.” The FIR adds that several individuals, including Sushil Kumar, the gunman of IGP Y. Puran Kumar, and Sunil Kumar, posted in the security branch of Rohtak police, “repeatedly approached and threatened” the ASI. They allegedly cited the names of senior and influential figures — IGP Y. Puran Kumar, his wife IAS officer Amneet P. Kumar, her brother MLA Amit Rattan (previously arrested in a corruption case), and another relative serving as IG in the Commission for Scheduled Castes. During the investigation, Sushil Kumar, the gunman of IGP Y. Puran Kumar, was arrested. The FIR claims that further arrests were planned, and it was during this period that IGP Y. Puran Kumar took his own life. After his death, his wife and her brother allegedly resisted the post-mortem and “began pressuring the Haryana government to act against honest officers involved in the case”. Santosh has alleged that, because of this “political and administrative pressure”, her husband was “continuously harassed and mentally tortured”. For about a week before his death, he reportedly expressed despair, saying that “honesty has no value” in the police force and that sincere officers were being punished for doing their duty. Despite her attempts to reassure him, she said he had “lost faith in the system”. “My husband ultimately took the extreme step due to unbearable pressure and harassment caused by Amneet P. Kumar, her brother Amit Rattan, and their relatives holding high-ranking positions,” the FIR quotes her as saying. “I saw the suicide note near his body, which reflects the mental agony and coercion he suffered at their hands. I request a thorough and impartial investigation into their roles, including a probe into their and our properties, to establish who is corrupt and who is honest.” She also referred to an alleged vigilance inquiry that she claimed would have revealed further details about corrupt officials in the state. Concluding her statement, Santosh wrote, “Given the gravity of the matter and the involvement of influential figures, I request that the case be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for an independent and transparent inquiry. I am in deep mental trauma due to my husband’s death. As and when any additional evidence or information comes to my notice, I will share it with the police.”