Principal secretary Harminder Raj Singh (58), a 1978-batch officer, was found dead at his house with a bullet wound in his temple, ostensibly self-inflicted from his own .32-bore licensed revolver.
Are unreasonable demands from above driving Uttar Pradesh top officials to the end of their tether? The question is abuzz in the power corridors of the state after a senior IAS officer allegedly committed suicide on Sunday.
Principal secretary Harminder Raj Singh (58), a 1978-batch officer, was found dead at his house with a bullet wound in his temple, ostensibly self-inflicted from his own .32-bore licensed revolver. His wife was at home when the incident took place.
While the post-mortem report puts the time of his death at 1.30 am on Sunday, the hush-hush manner in which the autopsy was conducted has fuelled speculation about what drove the bureaucrat to take the extreme step. Singh, who hailed from Chandigarh, was known to be an upright, sincere and efficient officer.
Congress MP PL Punia, a retired IAS officer, alleged that top officers in the Mayawati government were being pressurised to carry out dishonest tasks.
“His (Singh’s) death just a day before the crucial hearing (in the Ambedkar Park case in the apex court) puts a question mark over the government,” he told DNA. “A thorough inquiry of all the files he was dealing with and his phone records would reveal how he was being pressurised and by whom,” he added.
Lucknow DIG Prem Prakash’s official statement on the death has also raised doubts. “Singh had been ill for the past few days… he was suffering from high blood pressure and some other ailments for which he was taking medicines… the cause of death seems to be suicide,” the DIG told reporters.
Ridiculous, say Singh’s close associates. “He was working on Saturday even though it was a holiday because of the Ambedkar Park case,” an officer from Singh’s department said. “He had not taken any leave in the recent past, and he used to work till late evenings,” said another.
Questions are also being asked why doctors were called in the dead of night to conduct the post-mortem. Also, no one except close relatives and family friends were allowed near the body at Singh’s house. The media was also kept at bay. Besides, no minister or top official from the chief minister’s secretariat came to Singh’s house to pay respects.
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