Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday said that the death of Haryana police officer Y Puran Kumar concerns the dignity of all Dalits and urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chief Minister Nayab Singh Saini to take immediate action and arrest those responsible. Speaking to reporters after meeting Kumar’s family, Gandhi said the officer faced systematic discrimination aimed at demoralizing him and harming his career. Kumar, found dead from a gunshot in his Chandigarh home last week, had reportedly named eight senior officials in a note, accusing them of caste-based discrimination, mental harassment, public humiliation, and other atrocities.

The comments came after the Haryana government sent state DGP Shatrujeet Kapur on leave and transferred former Rohtak SP Narendra Bijarniya, both of whom were mentioned in Kumar’s note. Gandhi, who met Kumar’s wife, senior bureaucrat Amneet P Kumar, their daughters, and other family members, pressed for the funeral to be conducted without delay. He criticized the state government for pressuring the family and demanded immediate action against the officials cited in Kumar’s note.

“The family is asking only for respect, and that is right,” he said, adding that the chief minister had not fulfilled his commitment to conduct a free and fair inquiry. Gandhi emphasized that the issue was not just about one family but about the respect of every Dalit in India. He said Kumar’s career had been systematically targeted for years, sending a harmful message to Dalits nationwide that no matter their abilities or achievements, they could still be suppressed.

Kumar, a 2001-batch officer aged 52, had recently been posted as Inspector General at the Police Training Centre in Sunaria, Rohtak. His wife, a commissioner and secretary in the Haryana government, was in Japan on a government delegation when he was found dead on October 7. Gandhi also referenced a “false case” involving a liquor contractor in Rohtak who accused a police constable of soliciting a bribe in Kumar’s name. The constable, Sushil Kumar, has since been arrested.