A retired senior police officer is battling for life after allegedly attempting suicide following claims that he lost ₹8.10 crore in a cyber fraud, prompting a high-level inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
Police said Amar Singh Chahal, a former inspector general of police, was found with a gunshot wound to his chest at his Patiala residence late Monday. The injury is believed to be self-inflicted using the revolver of a security guard. He was rushed to Park Hospital, where doctors described his condition as critical.
Varun Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, said officers reached the spot within minutes of receiving the alert. “We intervened in time and shifted him to hospital while he was still breathing,” he told reporters.
Investigators recovered a 12-page handwritten note from Chahal’s home, addressed to Gaurav Yadav, Director General of Police, Punjab. In the letter, Chahal reportedly detailed severe financial distress after allegedly being duped in an online investment scam. He claimed to have invested ₹1 crore of his own funds and borrowed the rest from friends and relatives, transferring money through multiple banks.
Police sources said Chahal had also written to Narendra Modi, Amit Shah, and Nirmala Sitharaman, seeking intervention.
Authorities are now examining transaction trails and verifying whether other investors were similarly affected, indicating a larger cyber fraud network.
The case is further complicated by Chahal’s past involvement in the politically sensitive 2015 Behbal Kalan and Kotkapura firing cases. While the investigation continues on multiple fronts, officials say their immediate priority remains his medical condition, even as the note he left behind could determine the direction of the cybercrime probe.
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