Bangalore: The death of Karnataka IAS officer DK Ravi, which occured earlier this week under mysterious circumstances, has snowballed into a major controversy.
While a probe still has to ascertain whether the 36-year-old Ravi, of the 2009 batch, committed suicide or was murdered, new information has come to light which could be crucial to the ongoing investigation.
According to a report in media, Ravi called his 2009 batchmate 44 times in a span of an hour the day he died. The Karnataka police has approached the woman IAS officer for questioning as part of the investigation. According to the report, Ravi also sent a few text messages to the woman before his death.
The woman IAS officer, who is posted in southern Karnataka and has a child, was friends with Ravi prior to his marriage to Congress politician Hanumantharayappa’s daughter Kusuma. The Indian Express report further added that Ravi’s Facebook page had a few posts referring to the same woman.
Former Chief Minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy slammed the ruling Congress for maligning the IAS officer’s reputation. The Indian Express quoted the leader as saying, “What is the intent of revealing this information? How can the state CID investigate when this information has already been revealed.”
The 36-year-old Ravi was the joint commissioner in the commercial tax department since November 2014 following his transfer from Kolar where he was the deputy commissioner.
Police Commissioner MN Reddi had ruled out any foul play from the circumstances under which Ravi’s body was found. However, the police had not found any suicide note, IANS had reported.
As public anger mounted over the mysterious death of the upright IAS officer, Ravi’s family raised doubts over police’s claim that he committed suicide, saying that he was under “political pressure”, and insisting on a CBI probe.
“My son wouldn’t have committed suicide. He is not like that. He was strong hearted. My son was not a coward. I had not given birth to a son who could commit suicide,” Gowramma, the mother of DK Ravi, told PTI.
Not buying the police version, the Opposition had also demanded a CBI probe, instead of a CID inquiry as announced by the state government. After two days of protest, the Karnataka government said there was no need for a CBI investigation into the case and maintained that just a CID probe would be enough.
Speaking to reporters, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “This is not a case to be handed over to the CBI.”
Siddaramaiah, who is facing Opposition and public pressure to order a CBI probe into the case that has triggered outrage across the state, said the CID would conduct an impartial and speedy probe to bring out the truth.
But not happy with the government stand, Opposition BJP leader Jagadish Shettar alleged in the Assembly that “an attempt is being made to hush up this issue. Only CBI can do an honest investigation in this case.”
Like Aravind Kamal points out in this Firstpost article, the handling of Ravi’s case by the Karnataka police and the state government gives rise to a lot of questions. For example, even before Ravi’s body was sent for autopsy the police commissioner had announced that it was a suicide. Statements made by the state police also did not add up. The police also went public with their statement that Ravi committed suicide because of personal reasons even before they spoke to his parents or his wife.
Aravind further added that Karnataka Home Minister KJ George and Siddaramaiah’s reluctance to hand over the investigation to CBI opens more doors for speculation.
“Home Minister George came into the limelight because of the business tie-up his family concern (Kelachandra Group) had with real estate developer Embassy Group (which was allegedly being probed by Ravi). On Tuesday, with George facing the heat, he tried to distance himself from the Embassy Group. The minister went on to claim that his family concern had tied up with Embassy Group for a particular project – Embassy Golf Links – in Bengaluru. It is to be seen how many other ministers make such voluntary disclosures regarding their business interests in realty firms, which were being probed by the officer.”
Whether it was the land mafia or the realty firms or the “personal” reasons which led to Ravi’s death will be known only after a thorough investigation but Karnataka is not the best place for honest bureacrats, Aravind notes, adding such officers have been at the receiving end since Congress assumed power in Karnataka. Miscreants beat up IAS officer Rashmi Mahesh with footwear in Mysuru and the probe is still ongoing.
Speaking to Firstpost, Shettar said, “Ravi’s death has created a hostile environment for the rest of the bureaucrats. If this is the reward for honesty, bureaucrats will think twice before taking on the high and mighty. There are vested interests behind the mysterious death of Ravi.”
To make matters worse, Karnataka is one of the few states where CBI cannot voluntarily take up a case. The state government has to grant special permission to the CBI to probe cases in the state. With Siddaramaiah not allowing the central agency to investigate Ravi’s case however, the Chief Minister might be shooting himself in his foot, Aravind notes in his article.
Ravi was investigating into cases of tax evasion and was planning on raiding builders. In his capacity as an Additional Commissioner of Commercial Tax (Enforcement), Ravi had raided more than 20 firms, including builders, jewelers, exporters and a bank, and recovered about Rs 106 crore tax dues, this Times of India report said.
An RTI activist, Ganesh S Koundinya said Ravi had contacted him on Thursday last. “I had a conversation with Ravi on Thursday and Friday, if I remember. He told me that he had conducted raids on some developers and housing societies and recovered Rs 400 crore as income tax … Ravi was looking at raiding some big developers in Bangalore and he wanted to recover the evasion of taxes.”
Public anger over the unexplained death has still not ebbed. On Tuesday, hundreds spilled on to the streets of Karnataka outside Ravi’s residence to pay tributes and accompany the IAS officer’s body on his final journey.
