Two Punjab police officers die by suicide: Was it stress?

“According to initial investigations, ASI Pritam Das purchased one Celphos tablet, a highly toxic pesticide, from a store… near Adampur railway station. CCTV footage confirms this. After leaving the shop, ASI Das returned and asked for one more tablet, claiming his farmland required more. He purchased the tablets at around 4.50 pm. Later, at around 8.30 pm, Railway Station Master Naresh Raju discovered the bodies of the officers near one side of the station,” said HPS Khak, SSP Rural, Jalandhar. He also said that the railway station was over one kilometre from the spot where the juvenile had fled.

(Left) The shop from where ASI Pritam Das allegedly purchased Celphos tablets and (Right) the two ASI officers

Both the ASIs had joined Punjab Police in 1992, and completed more than 32 years of service.

ASI Das, from village Kanga in Hoshiarpur district’s Dasuya sub division, was posted at Tanda police station in Hoshiarpur. His wife, Savita Rani, was struggling to comprehend what had happened. “He told me he would come back. I cannot believe he is gone,” she said.

Das, who was cremated Friday with full police honours, has two children based in Canada – a son who went there as a student and recently got permanent residency, and a daughter who moved there for studies just eight months ago. Both have returned to perform their father’s last rites.

Das’s brother-in-law Amrik Singh remembered him as a kind-hearted man who was beloved in the community.

“So many people came from the surrounding villages to pay their respects,” Singh said. According to him, Das had expressed a desire to take voluntary retirement last year, citing health issues like diabetes as well growing pressures of the job. “But his daughter had gone to Canada for studies recently, and he wanted to support her for one more year,” said Amrik Singh.

A family member who did not want to be identified said Das had spoken about his struggles with work pressure in the past. “The pressure on police personnel is immense, and that day, when the accused escaped, he may not have been able to handle it,” the relative said.

ASI Jeevan Lal’s family called for a police investigation into “every angle”. Lal was from Hoshiarpur’s Bassi Kalana village, and was posted at Sadar police station in Hoshiarpur.

“We want the police to probe every angle, including the possibility of foul play,” a family member said.

On the day of the incident, a party of three police personnel, including the two ASIs and one driver from Hoshiarpur, were responsible for transporting two juveniles – both 17 – from the juvenile home in Hoshiarpur to the District Court in Kapurthala.

One of the juveniles was booked in a murder case (under sections 302, 506, 427, 148, 149, 120-B of IPC), while the other was charged under the POCSO Act.

While the police vehicle made its way back to Hoshiarpur following the court proceedings, one of the juveniles, seated with the other accused and one of the ASIs in the rear seat, managed to escape. He did this by jumping out of the vehicle on the highway near Adampur’s main bus stand, where traffic jams are common and the vehicle came to a halt.

ASIs Das and Lal immediately started chasing him on foot after instructing the driver to secure the second accused with a belt in the vehicle before rushing to Adampur police station.

“Both ASIs then borrowed a motorcycle from a passerby and searched for the juvenile for about 45 minutes. When they failed to capture him, they reportedly took extreme measures,” SSP Khak said.

Khak said the officers had been told by authorities at the juvenile home that the juvenile had tried to flee from custody multiple times in the past. “When the officers were transporting the accused from the Hoshiarpur Juvenile Home, they were cautioned by the jailer to ensure proper custody, as the accused had attempted to escape from the jail three times in the past,” Khak said.

The Adampur police have registered a case against the escaped juvenile. They are also coordinating with the Government Railway Police (GRP) to carry out formal investigations into the deaths of the two ASIs.

SHO of GRP police station, Jalandhar, Inspector Palwinder Singh, told The Indian Express that a post-mortem was conducted and the report would come in a couple of weeks.

Sources at the Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, where the post-mortem was conducted, said that prima facie, it seemed that the two had consumed a poisonous substance.

A senior police officer said on the condition of anonymity that the deaths could have been the result of work-related stress and fear of disciplinary action. “The exact reasons behind the officers’ drastic actions are still under investigation, but preliminary reports suggest that they may have been overwhelmed by work-related stress and the fear of facing disciplinary action for allowing the accused to escape,” the senior officer said.