Last hours of Haryana ASI: A tea-stall meet, a troubling call and a feigned office visit

Just hours before he was found dead with a gunshot wound to the head, Assistant Sub-Inspector Sandeep Kumar Lather met friends at a roadside tea stall, a familiar haunt. But on Tuesday morning, his friends noticed he was not himself.

“Something was off, he looked troubled and distracted,” his friend Sanjay Deswal was quoted as saying by The Indian Express. The conversation turned to the recent suicide of Haryana IGP Y Puran Kumar. According to Deswal, ASI Lather was deeply troubled by the direction of the probe into the senior officer’s death.

Then, around 11.30 am, a phone call came. Lather excused himself, saying he was returning to his office at the Rohtak cyber cell. “He lied,” Deswal said. Within an hour, Deswal learned his friend was dead. Lather had not gone to his office, but to his uncle’s house in the middle of a field in Ladhot village, where he was later discovered.

The second police suicide within a week has sent shockwaves through the state’s law enforcement, revealing a tangled web of allegations and counter-allegations. ASI Lather’s death was not an isolated incident; it was a direct and tragic response to the earlier death of IGP Puran Kumar, according to evidence left behind by the junior officer.

As reported earlier on the stark similarities between the two deaths: both involved a gunshot to the head, no eyewitnesses and a “final note”.

The content of those notes, however, places them in direct opposition. IGP Puran Kumar’s typed, eight-page letter levelled accusations of corruption against nine serving IPS officers, including the Director General of Police, Shatrujeet Kapur. In a dramatic turn, ASI Lather’s four-page handwritten note defended DGP Kapur and Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya and instead accused the late IGP Puran Kumar of corruption.

Lather also left behind a 6-minute, 28-second video, the contents of which have not been fully disclosed. The allegations within it were serious enough for police to register an FIR on charges of abetment to suicide based on his note.

Deswal reportedly revealed that Lather’s anguish had been building. The ASI had first confided in him the previous Saturday, saying the matter of the IGP’s suicide had been bothering him for a week. They met again on Sunday night.

“He told me the real issue was something else but (Puran Kumar’s death) was being portrayed in a completely contrary manner,” Deswal recounted.

This inner turmoil was not outwardly visible to his colleagues. A fellow officer in the cyber cell described Lather as his “usual cheery and hardworking self” throughout the entire week leading up to his death. He had reported for duty as normal at 9 am on Tuesday and had not taken any leave for over a month.

The investigation into the interconnected deaths is growing more complex. Sources cited by The Indian Express said that a Special Investigation Team of the Chandigarh Police questioned Puran Kumar’s Personal Security Officer (PSO), Sushil Kumar, who is currently lodged in Rohtak’s Sunaria jail. The PSO was arrested on October 6; the IGP died on October 7. The questioning occurred on October 12 and ASI Lather took his own life the following day.

The tragedy has drawn significant political attention. Politicians from across the spectrum descended upon Lather’s home in Ladhot village. Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini assured the family that “justice shall be delivered,” while INLD leader Abhay Chautala demanded a thorough investigation under the supervision of a sitting High Court judge.

The family, initially refusing to release Lather’s body while demanding a probe, relented on Wednesday night. The post-mortem was conducted on Thursday at the Rohtak PGIMS.

A senior Haryana Police officer reportedly assured that the investigation was ongoing and no culprit would be spared, vowing that the truth would be unearthed.