Haryana’s Rohtak Superintendent of Police, Narendra Bijarniya, has been removed from his post after being named in connection with the alleged suicide of IPS officer Puran Kumar. The state government has appointed Surinder Singh Bhoria as the new SP of Rohtak. Bijarniya, meanwhile, has not been assigned a new posting.

The transfer comes days after IAS officer Amneet Puran Kumar, the late officer’s wife, lodged a formal complaint accusing several senior officials, including Haryana DGP Shatrujeet Kapoor and the Rohtak SSP, of harassment and abetment. Her complaint sought FIRs, arrests of those named in the suicide note, and security for her family. Following this, police registered an FIR against 13 officers.

Amid growing outrage, a 31-member committee has declared that no post-mortem will be conducted until DGP Kapoor is dismissed. The group has also called for a Mahapanchayat at the Sector 20 Gurudwara in Chandigarh, urging swift justice and accountability for those allegedly involved.

Sonia Gandhi Expresses Solidarity

In a heartfelt letter to Amneet Kumar, Congress leader Sonia Gandhi expressed anguish over the IPS officer’s death, describing it as a stark reminder of how social discrimination continues to affect even senior Dalit bureaucrats.

“His patriotism and commitment will continue to remind us that the sacrifice and dedication of our elders inspire even senior officials to serve the nation selflessly,” Gandhi wrote.

Political and Social Outcry

The incident has sparked widespread protests across Haryana. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Randeep Surjewala, and Rahul Gandhi have all demanded immediate justice for Puran Kumar. Meanwhile, Dalit organisations have staged demonstrations outside the Chief Minister’s residence, warning of statewide protests if action against the accused officials is delayed.

In the wake of continuous outrage over the death of a 19-year-old teacher under mysterious circumstances in Haryana’s Bhiwani a week ago, Chief Minister Nayab Saini on Wednesday (August 20, 2025) said the probe into the case would be handed over to the Central Bureau of Investigation.

“Based on the family’s demand, the Haryana government is going to hand over the case to the CBI for impartial probe. Full justice will be ensured in the matter,” said Mr. Saini in a post on his official “X” account in the early hours. Saying that he himself was continuously monitoring the reports of the case, Mr. Saini wrote that the “State government and the police administration are working with full seriousness and transparency” to ensure justice for “our daughter Manisha”.

The third post-mortem was conducted on her body at All-India Institute of Medical Sciences in Delhi on Wednesday afternoon as per the demand of the family, who had raised doubts over the two post-mortem reports with conflicting findings.

After both demands of the family were met, they agreed to perform her last rites on Thursday morning.

Amid heightened tension, the State government had on Tuesday (August 19, 2025) morning suspended mobile internet services, bulk SMS and all dongle services for 48 hours in Bhiwani and Charkhi Dadri districts.

The decomposed body of the woman, a resident of Bhiwani’s Singhani village, was found in the fields on August 13, which was two days after she had gone missing from outside a nursing college. It sparked off suspicion of murder and the family, along with the locals, staged a demonstration seeking the arrest of the culprits and refused to cremate the body.

On August 15, the Chief Minister ordered the transfer of the Bhiwani Superintendent of Police and suspended five police personnel for negligence and delayed action in response of mounting public anger and political criticism.

Turning the case on its head, the Bhiwani Police on August 18 said the probe had revealed that the woman had died by suicide and a note was found on her. The police claimed that the woman had bought insecticide from a shop, and the fact was established by the closed-circuit television camera footage and an entry made by the shopkeeper in the register. The Forensic Sciences Laboratory investigation and the post-mortem report too had suggested traces of insecticide in her body, said the police.

The family and the locals, however, rejected the police’s “suicide theory” as an attempt to “cover-up” questioning the five-day delay in making the note public.

Kolkata: The School Service Commission missed its Monday 6pm deadline of publishing the lists of “tainted” and “untainted” teachers, triggering chaos outside Acharya Sadan, its headquarters in Salt Lake.

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Protesters, saying they had run out of patience, clashed with police and tried to breach barricades around the SSC headquarters several times as news trickled out that the SSC had devised a new “cut-off” to separate the “tainted” from the “untainted”: only the first three of the 20 rounds of counselling that took place between 2017 and 2019 would be considered valid, implying that teachers recruited from the fourth round would not feature in the list of the “untainted”.

This led to a day-long stand-off, with protesters barricading the SSC office with its chairperson

Siddhartha Majumder

inside. There were intermittent clashes with cops and, at one point in the evening, protesters even refused to let food meant for Majumdar and other officials enter the SSC headquarters.

Poll Are you in favor of a public dialogue between the government officials and protesting teachers? No, it won’t change anything. Yes, it is necessary for resolution.

SSC Teachers sit on ‘Dharna’ outside SSC office; protest against Bengal govt.

SSC sources said the SC judgment striking down the appointment had noted that counselling and appointments were made after the expiry of the panel, which was “illegal and contrary to the rules”.

The panel was valid for a year, within which three counselling sessions were held. The SSC needed to get a legal clarification on whether the SC order invalidates counselling sessions after the third round, they said.

Thirteen representatives from the protesting teachers’ ranks learnt about the new development when they met SSC Majumdar on Monday evening. They vehemently opposed the move and staged a sit-in demonstration inside the SSC office as their colleagues protested outside, arguing that the SSC petition in the Calcutta High Court said candidates appointed till the seventh round of counselling were eligible (candidates appointed after the eighth round, too, were included in later).

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“Is this a joke?” Chinmay Mandal, who was in the team that spoke to SSC officials, asked. “We were told two separate lists would be published — tainted and untainted — and they gave this deadline. They now have yet another excuse. The SSC chairman has now told us that the fate of the remaining candidates appointed in the fourth to the eighth counselling rounds would be decided two-three days later. We will not leave till the segregated lists are published.

The CM must hold a press conference and admit responsibility for our job loss. We demand a compensation of Rs 2 crore for each of us,” he added.

Mehboob Mandal, another prominent face of the Qualified Teachers’ Rights Platform, stated that the complete list of qualified teachers must be published.

“They are applying a divide-and-rule policy to break our unity. But they will not succeed. We will not accept the new counselling theory.

They have to publish the segregated list,” he demanded.

The agitating teachers blocked Derozio Bhavan, the office of the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education as well to stop its president, Ramanuj Ganguly, from leaving. There were also demands for SSC chairman Majumdar’s and state

education minister Bratya Basu

‘s resignation.

Group C and Group D staffers held a separate protest march to the WBBSE office and staged a sit-in protest, demanding their issue, too, be raised at the Supreme Court just like the state had done for teachers (which led to the temporary reprieve till 2025 end).