The death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer DK Ravi has taken another turn with the State CID now looking into his failed love affair with a batchmate, on whose mobile Ravi had allegedly called several times before his death. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Home Minister KJ George also maintained in the Assembly on Friday that the officer had committed suicide due to personal reasons. A senior officer, on conditions of anonymity, told The Pioneer that the probe points a finger at the failed love affair as the reason for Ravi’s suicide. However, he said the investigation is taking into account all possible angles, including threats from the builders’ lobby and sand mafia.
The officer said the woman in question has been made a witness in the case. The decision was followed by her conversation with Chief Secretary Kaushik Mukherjee where she briefed him and also recorded her statement with the CID. According to sources, the woman IAS officer, who is posted in southern Karnataka, was friends with Ravi prior to his marriage to Congress politician Hanumantharayappa’s daughter Kusuma, and Ravi had been pressing her to divorce her husband and marry him. However, she firmly refused, after which he kept on calling her, even in his final hours. Meanwhile, former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy slammed the ruling Congress for maligning the IAS officer’s reputation.
“What is the intent of revealing this informationIJ How can the state CID investigate when this information has already been revealedIJ” 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.
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.
However Siddaramaiah, who is facing opposition and public pressure for a CBI probe into the case, said the CID would conduct an impartial and speedy probe to bring out the truth. 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.
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.”
Meanwhile Siddaramaiah met Governor Vajubhai Vala on Friday and briefed him about the incident of Ravi and handing over the probe to CID. ‘’I have given full details of the incident of the death of Ravi and also gave the Governor inputs on the CID inquiry which has already begun. I cannot say more in this regard as the police inquiry is on,’’ he said. The Chief Minister’s meeting assumed significance as the Opposition BJP and JD(S) leaders had met the Governor on Thursday and sought his intervention. Meanwhile, various organisations continued the agitation demanding a CBI probe into the death, which had however been rejected by the State Government.
