Morale of state police force not down: Haryana DGP on officers' suicides

Panchkula, Oct 21 (PTI) Referring to the recent incidents of alleged suicides by an IPS officer and an assistant sub-inspector, Haryana DGP O P Singh on Tuesday rubbished the claims that morale of the state's police force has been affected.

Y Puran Kumar, 52, who had recently been posted as IG, Police Training Centre, in Rohtak's Sunaria, was found with a gunshot wound at his Chandigarh residence on October 7. Seven days later, another police officer, ASI Sandeep Kumar, allegedly committed suicide in Rohtak.

Speaking to reporters in Panchkula on the sidelines of Police Commemoration Day, DGP Singh said some people are presenting a misleading narrative on social media, whereas the reality is quite different.

"There are two worlds these days — one social media world and another, the real world. There is no problem in the real world. Whatever is happening is on social media," he said while responding to a question about whether the two incidents have affected the morale of the state police force.

"We are deeply saddened that our two colleagues (IPS officer Puran Kumar and ASI Sandeep), who still had years of service and would have served the people and the nation, are no more. We also recently lost an ASI who was on traffic duty (in Panchkula). But this is a police force, our fight goes on..." "We are here to protect people. Do we have the option to sit down and lose morale? There is no loss of morale," the DGP emphasised.

Y Puran, a 2001-batch IPS officer, allegedly committed suicide at his Sector 11 private residence here on October 7. A twist in the IPS officer's suicide case came on October 14 when ASI in Rohtak police, Sandeep Kumar, shot himself dead at a village in Rohtak and purportedly levelled corruption allegations against Puran.

Meanwhile, on Police Commemoration Day, DGP Singh paid floral tributes at the 'Police Martyrs Memorial' to the martyrs of the police force.

"Those who laid down their lives for the nation, we should hold them in respect and take care of their families," he said, according to an official statement.

Police Commemoration Day is observed every year in memory of 10 Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who were killed on this day in 1959 in an ambush by Chinese troops in Ladakh's Hot Spring area. PTI SUN AMJ AMJ