Fake degree: Punjab govt not to press forgery charges against cricketer Harmanpreet

Even as Team India T20 cricket skipper Harmanpreet Kaur has been divested of her deputy superintendent of police (DSP) rank for submitting a fake degree, the Punjab government is not inclined to initiate any criminal proceedings against her.

A top government functionary revealed on condition anonymity that Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh doesn’t want any penal action against the sportswomen of international repute and ruin her career. He wants to give her a chance to complete her studies and later get promotion as DSP, said the functionary.

If any legal action is initiated, it might complicate the matter for the Indian skipper, who was conferred with the Arjuna award last year.

DGP Suresh Arora, on his part, said: “The matter has been sent to the government for further course of action.”

The 29-year-old cricketer from Moga was appointed DSP on March 1, with Amarinder and DGP Arora pinning the stars on her uniform. She had submitted a 2011 graduation degree purportedly issued by Chaudhary Charan Singh University in Meerut to fulfil the eligibility criterion for becoming a DSP.

Enquiries by Punjab Police with the Meerut varsity revealed that Harmanpreet’s graduation degree was not genuine and in fact she was never enrolled as a varsity student. The state has now offered her a constable’s post on the basis of her Class 12 pass certificate.

The chief minister had offered the DSP’s post to Harmanpreet, who hails from Moga district, in July last year, following her scintillating performance in the Women’s World Cup 2017.

Harmanpreet was earlier employed with the Railways as a Superintendent. Captain had intervened to seek a waiver for her from a bond signed with the Railways to enable her to join as DSP in Punjab.