Haryana IPS suicide case: SP Rohtak Narendra Bijarnia removed, action pending against other accused officers

Haryana Government, on Saturday, removed Narendra Bijarnia from the post of Superintendent of Police of Rohtak District. Surendra Singh Bhoria, an officer of State Police Service , has been appointed the Police Chief of the District. Bijrania is one of the prominent officers named in the Indian Police Service officer Y Puran Kumar suicide case.

Meanwhile Amneet P Kumar , wife of the deceased IPS , has not given her consent (till Saturday evening) for the postmortem of Y Putran Kumar who committed suicide at his Chandigarh residence on October 7.

Rohtak connection to the suicide case:
Y. Puran Kumar, an IPS officer of the 2001 batch of Haryana Cadre ,  was the Inspector General (IG) of the Rohtak Range. He was transferred to the Police Training Center on September 29th but had not assumed charge at his new office.  Meanwhile, a police team from Rohtak district arrested  Sushil Kumar , an Head Constable ,  in a corruption case. He was accused of demanding money from a businessman allegedly on behalf of IPS Y Puran Kumar . Sushil was posted with  Y. Puran Kumar during his tenure as IG Rohtak. Rohtak police stated that Sushil confessed to his offence during interrogation and that the police have audio video evidence about this . The then Superintendent of Police Narendra Bijarnia was supervising the case.

 Accused Sushil was being taken to court on October 7th and during that time Y. Puran Kumar committed suicide by shooting himself in his Chandigarh home.

Chandigarh police , on the basis of suicide note recovered from the scene and a complaint filed by Y. Puran Kumar’s wife Amneet P. Kumar, registered a case of abetment to suicide. Different sections of SC/ST (PoA) Act were also added in the FIR. More than a dozen serving or retired IPS and IAS officers have been named in the case, notably Narendra Bijarnia and Haryana’s Director General of Police (DGP Haryana), Shatrughan Singh Kapoor.

No postmortem yet:
Amneet P. Kumar, herself a senior IAS officer posted in Haryana, specifically demanded action against these two officers in a complaint submitted to Haryana Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. She demanded immediate removal , suspension and arrest of  Narendra Bijarnia and DGP Shatrujit Singh Kapoor. Amneet P Kumar also said  that she wont give her consent for the post mortem of her husband,  until action is taken against these officers.

Meanwhile, on Saturday evening, a team led by Chandigarh Director General of Police Sagar Preet Hooda visited Amneet P. Kumar at her home and requested permission for a post-mortem, but Amneet refused. Mr. Hooda was accompanied by Chandigarh IG Pushpendra Kumar and SSP Kanwardeep Kaur. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed under Pushpendra Kumar’s leadership is investigating the suicide case.

New SP in Rohtak:
Surendra Singh Bhoria appointed as the SP in Rohtak, replacing Narendra Bijarnia, is a 2014-batch officer of the State Police Service (SPS). He was, until recently,  the Commandant of the 5th Battalion of the Haryana Armed Police (HAP) in Madhuban. Bhoria has previously served as Superintendent of Police in Ambala, Kurukshetra, and Yamunanagar districts of Haryana.Mr. Bhoria was transferred after several incidents of firing in Yamunanagar. He also served as Superintendent of Police of the State Crime Bureau.

Narendra Bijarnia has not yet been assigned a new posting. He has been attached to the Haryana Police Headquarters (Panchkula).

DGP Shatrujit Singh Kapoor:
The State Government is also under pressure to remove Police Chief Shatrujeet Singh Kapoor in this case. It is being said that the government may send him on long leave. Mr. Kapoor , considered as a favorite officer of the current ruling political leadership in the state,  has a reputation as a top police officer in combating corruption. Mr. Kapoor also headed the Anti-Corruption Bureau.