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Chandigarh: A day after senior Haryana IPS officer Y. Puran Kumar was found dead in an apparent case of suicide at his Sector 11 residence in Chandigarh, questions are being raised about the circumstances surrounding his death and the inclusion of his name in an FIR lodged just a day earlier in Rohtak.

According to sources close to the family, the 2001-batch IPS officer’s name was added to the FIR without requisite permission from the state government, as mandated under service rules. “His name could not have been included without prior approval. We believe he was under tremendous pressure and was driven to it,” a family acquaintance said.

The Rohtak Police had on Monday registered an FIR based on a complaint filed by a liquor contractor, who alleged that one Sushil, said to be a close aide of Kumar, then serving as Inspector General (IG), Rohtak Range, had demanded a bribe of ₹2.5 lakh in the officer’s name. The contractor is reported to have submitted CCTV footage and audio recordings to support his allegations.

While Sushil was arrested and produced in court the same evening, the inclusion of Kumar’s name in the FIR—without a departmental nod—has now come under scrutiny. Senior officials are examining whether due procedure was followed before the FIR was registered.

Kumar, a respected officer with over two decades of service, had recently been transferred to Sunaria Jail in Rohtak, where the Dera Sacha Sauda chief, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, is lodged. He was known to have raised questions in the past about the promotion process of certain IPS officers from earlier batches.

The incident has deeply shaken the Haryana police fraternity, with several colleagues describing Kumar as “upright, disciplined and dedicated.” Many officers said he had shown signs of distress in recent days.

At the time of the incident, Kumar’s wife, Amneet P. Kumar, a 2001-batch IAS officer serving as Commissioner and Secretary, Foreign Cooperation Department, was in Japan as part of an official delegation led by Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini. She is now returning to India and is expected to reach Chandigarh by Wednesday.

According to officials accompanying her, the return flight from Japan was delayed, but arrangements are being made for her swift travel to Chandigarh. “Though we were booked on a flight to Chandigarh past 11 am, we may have to take the next one due to the arrival delay,” one of the officers said.

The Chandigarh Police have sealed the house and collected mobile phones, official documents, and forensic evidence from the scene. The CFSL team examined the site on Tuesday evening.

While the police have so far called it a case of suicide, the officer’s family insists that there is more to the story. They have demanded a high-level inquiry into the circumstances that led to his death, including the timing and content of the FIR filed in Rohtak. The tragedy has triggered a broader conversation within the police service about stress, accountability, and procedural fairness, especially for officers handling sensitive postings.