India women's T20 captain Harmanpreet Kaur set to be demoted

Indian women T20 skipper and star batswomen Harmanpret Kaur may be demoted from DSP rank to a mere constable. This action is following a lenient view taken by Punjab Police which found her graduation degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University to be fake. Harmanpreet joined Punjab Police from Railways as DSP following her exploits in the Women World Cup four months back. 

Indian women T20 skipper and star batswomen Harmanpret Kaur may be demoted from DSP rank to a mere constable. This action is following a lenient view taken by Punjab Police which found her graduation degree from Chaudhary Charan Singh University to be fake. Harmanpreet joined Punjab Police from Railways as DSP following her exploits in the Women World Cup four months back. 

 "As her graduation degree was found to be fake, Harmanpreet's qualification can now be treated as Class XII. So she can be given the post of constable which matches her educational qualification," said a senior government official.

According to sources, the Punjab government is not keen on taking any strict action against her due public profile and her popularity as a cricketer of repute and hence haven't pressed any criminal charges of forgery. However, the minimum requirement of a DSP is a graduate as per Punjab Police norms, and therefore the government may take the decision of demoting her back in sync with her educational qualifications. 

Harmanpreet's father Harmandar Singh had earlier claimed that the testimonials of his daughter were "genuine". He had claimed that his daughter got the job of office superintendent at the Western Railway on the basis of the graduation degree.

Harmanpreet remained elusive and refused to comment on the issue any further but she did give an official clarification to Punjab Police department official recently. 

Last week, when she was in Mohali to take part in an event, she refused to come out of her vanity van for more than an hour as mediapersons waited for her clarification on the controversy regarding submission of alleged bogus degree in order to procure a job with Punjab Police. 

Finally, when she was persuaded to speak to the media, she declined to answer any queries with regards to her educational qualification.  

"I am aware of it (controversy), government is taking care of that. I am hoping for a positive response," she said.

Harmanpreet was the Women in Blue’s second-highest run-scorer with 359 runs from nine matches at an average of 59.83. Her knock of 171 not out against Australia remains to be her top score in the ODI format.