IAS officer’s death rocks the Karnataka regime
The Karnataka Government has created an environment of suspicion and distrust by transferring the head of the Criminal Investigation Department just when the CID had begun to probe the death of a well-regarded IAS officer, DK Ravi. Ravi was found hanging at his residence under mysterious circumstances. While Karnataka Police maintains it is a case of suicide, others, including Ravi’s kin and friends, suspect foul play.
They say that the IAS officer was not the kind to take his life on flimsy grounds and that he was under tremendous pressure from influential people whom he had rubbed the wrong way in the process of unearthing a host of irregularities in his official capacity. A friend of his told the media that Ravi had been in a heated conversation with someone over the phone hours before he was found dead.
With claims and counter-claims flying thick and fast, the best way to deal with the case is to hand it over to a professional agency whose bipartisanship is trusted by both the State Government and the deceased’s family members. The demand for a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation is, therefore, a valid one.
The Karnataka Government ought to have straightway conceded to this demand. By not doing so, by entrusting the matter to the CID which at the end of the day comes under the very Government whose credibility on the subject at hand is being questioned, and then by summarily transferring the Inspector General of Police leading the CID, the Congress’s Siddaramaiah regime has strengthened the impression that it either has something to hide or is apprehensive of certain information spilling out in the open as a consequence of an inquiry by the CBI.
At the time of writing, the State Government continues to maintain its stand on the CID probe. But, given the growing support for Ravi and pressure from his family and friends, the Government will have to eventually bow. Also, given the fresh material that continues to trickle into the public domain and that which raises new doubts on the death, it will not be possible for the State regime to keep the lid on the issue for long.
Meanwhile, the manner in which the State Government has handled the episode has seriously damaged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s credibility and that of his regime’s image. After news of Ravi’s death broke out, State authorities quickly put out the information that the IAS officer had been transferred out of Kolar — where he had taken on the sand mafia, won the admiration of the people and become a hero of sorts — for ‘personal reasons’ that his family had cited.
The idea was to quash any talk of wrongdoing. That hasn’t worked; on the contrary, it has further fuelled speculation. There is something certainly fishy in the episode. Whether the country gets to know the truth, will be also determined by how serious the State Government is in unravelling it.