Pb govt demotes Harmanpreet from DSP rank to constable

Indian women T20 cricket team captain, Harmanpreet Kaur, may be demoted as a constable in the Punjab police from a post of a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) as she submitted fake degree while joining the force.

The developments came as a major embarrassment for the ace cricketer who is also an Arjuna award winner. However, questions are being raised over the government’s ‘lenient attitude’ in favouring the member of the Indian women cricket team. The issue of Kaur’s fake degree could have invited registration of a case against Kaur under relevant sections of the IPC.

Sources said, the government may not decide against any such move to register an FIR against Kaur and the only punishment of sorts against her could be the demotion to a much lower rank of a police constable.

Kaur was earlier a superintendent in the Indian Railways. She was offered the post of a DSP by the government as she claimed to be a graduate in humanities. Her contract with the railways stood in way of her joining the police. But she was relieved before the expiry of her contact after Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh took up the issue with the Railways, said sources.

Kaur, said sources, claims to be innocent in the matter. About four months ago at an impressive ceremony attended by the chief minister and state DGP, Kaur was made a DSP under the sports quota. A graduation degree is mandatory for someone to qualify to apply for the post of a DSP.

However, during the process of verification of Kaur’s degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut, it was found the degree did not exist. The university responded saying it did not have any record of a graduate degree as claimed by Kaur.