CHANDIGARH: After an eight-day impasse, the family of senior IPS officer Y Puran Kumar gave their consent to Chandigarh Police to conduct a postmortem on Wednesday morning. The cremation was carried out in the evening, with both daughters performing the last rites.A nerve-wracking time for the family and Haryana govt came to close. The family’s insistence on action against those named in Puran Kumar’s suicide note, including DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and then Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya, had put Haryana govt in a fix.
With Dalit protests erupting and the issue reverberating across the nation, Bijarniya was transferred on Oct 14, four days after the suicide, and Kapur was sent on leave around midnight on Monday.On Wednesday morning, Puran Kumar’s wife, IAS officer Amneet P Kumar, issued a statement that she consented to the postmortem because of Chandigarh Police’s assurance to conduct a fair probe.FIR was read to family; ASI’s postmortem today Sources say Virendra Badkhalsa, OSD to Haryana CM, informed Sandeep’s family about registration of FIR on Wednesday evening. TOI has spoken with two of the negotiators who were present when the contents of the FIR were read out to the family. Only then did Sandeep’s family agree to an autopsy. Around the same time, Puran Kumar’s body was being cremated in Chandigarh, 230km away, after eight days of stalemate. Sandeep’s body, which was so far kept in a hired freezer by the family, was taken to PGIMS Rohtak at night. Cremation will follow postmortem on Thursday morning, said sources in the family. Sandeep was part of the team that was investigating the case allegedly involving Puran Kumar, and was also involved in the arrest of Puran Kumar’s former PSO on Oct 5. It was this FIR, registered on Oct 6, that’s alleged to be the trigger for Puran Kumar’s suicide as Sushil was alleged to have given a statement that he was demanding money on behalf of Puran Kumar, who was then Rohtak IG. Haryana govt found itself battling on two fronts. Amneet and other members of the family had refused to allow autopsy until action was taken against DGP Shatrujeet Kapur and then Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya, who were among those named by Puran Kumar in his suicide note. Bijarniya was transferred on Oct 10 and Kapur was sent on leave on Monday midnight. Less than 12 hours after Kapur was sent on leave, Sandeep shot himself after releasing a final video in which he called Kapur honest and accused Puran Kumar of corruption. In the video, he said Puran Kumar’s suicide was due to “humiliation from corruption charges” and had “nothing to do with caste issues”. Sandeep’s family took away his body, kept it in a freezer in Ladhot, and refused to allow autopsy or cremation until an FIR was registered against all those he had named in the video and his four-page suicide note. The Haryana CM, accompanied by ministers Krishan Lal Panwar and Mahipal Singh Dhanda, rushed to the village on the outskirts of Rohtak on Wednesday morning to console the family. Sandeep’s sisters tearfully asked Saini what was their brother’s fault, and pleaded for justice, said a source. The CM assured the grieving family that appropriate action would be taken, and justice would be delivered. Apart from the FIR, the family wanted a job for a relative and financial assistance, to which govt agreed.
