With her graduation degree found to be fake, India Women’s T20 International captain Harmanpreet Kaur may lose the post of Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) in Punjab Police and get demoted as a constable.
As the Chaudhary Charan Singh University (CCSU) in Meerut has confirmed that the degree certificate furnished by Harmanpreet for the job had not been issued by it, Punjab government appears to have decided to demote the Arjuna awardee cricketer to the post of constable barely four months after she was appointed DSP under the sports quota.
Though Harmanpreet is not likely to face action for furnishing a fake degree as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has taken a lenient view of the episode, she may be demoted to the post of constable as her current education qualification (senior secondary) makes her eligible only for the post.
Sources said if Harmanpreet gets bachelor’s degree in future, she may be promoted as DSP again.
Sources said on her part, Harmanpreet has defended his fake degree with the argument that she was not aware if it was fake. A senior official said Harmanpreet claims that she took admission with the university in Meerut on her then coach’s recommendation as it was flexible about the examinations and she was unaware about her degree being fake.
Harmanpreet, who is from Moga, had joined the Punjab Police as a DSP on March 1, this year. She was appointed to the post through sports quota for her achievements in cricket.
A bachelor’s degree is mandatory for the post, and the cricketer had submitted one purported to have been issued by CCSU in 2011. The Punjab Police had approached the CCS University for verification of her educational certificates and found her testimonials not to be correct as she was not enrolled with the university.
The revelation regarding Harmanpreet degree was a big embarrassment for the 29-year-old ace cricketer as well as the Punjab government.
Harmanpreet was also part of the Indian squad in the 2017 Women’s World Cup where she scored an unbeatable 177 runs off 115 balls in the semi-final against Australia — the highest individual score for India in the Women’s World Cup history.
This is not the first time Punjab Police has faced such a case. In February, the CM ordered removal of the 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist and two-time Asian Games (2010 and 2014) gold medalist Mandeep Kaur from DSP’s post. She had been appointed in 2016.
Mandeep had submitted her graduation degree purportedly to have been acquired from an institute affiliated to Sikkim University, and the state police had found it to be fake.