Headlines
Centre offers CBI probe into Karnataka IAS officer's death
New Delhi/Bengaluru, March 19
The central
government is ready to ask the CBI to investigate the death of IAS
officer D.K. Ravi if the Karnataka government agrees to it, Home
Minister Rajnath Singh told parliament on Thursday.
"We are ready
for a CBI inquiry if the state government wants," Rajnath Singh told
members in the Lok Sabha during the zero hour after BJP members from
Karnataka met him and demanded that the premier investigation agency
should probe Ravi's death.
The home minister said a few senior
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers from the state also sought
an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the
mysterious death of the 36-year-old 2009 batch officer, who was working
as additional commissioner of the state commercial tax department in
Bengaluru.
"I have spoken to the Karnataka chief minister
(Siddaramaiah), who said he would send a detailed report to me within a
couple of days," Rajnath Singh said.
"If the state government
wants (a CBI probe), then as soon as I get a representation from it, we
will be ready for a CBI inquiry," he said.
Ravi was found dead on March 16 in his official apartment by his wife Kusuma.
Police
prime facie termed the death as suicide as there were no external
injuries on the body, which was found hanging by a ceiling fan in the
officer's bedroom.
Rejecting the demand for CBI probe by
opposition Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal-Secular, Ravi's family
and the public, the Congress government in the state ordered a probe by
the Criminal Investigation Department (CID).
Pralhad Joshi, BJP's
Lok Sabha member from Dharwad, told reporters outside parliament that
he met Rajnath Singh along with other MPs from the state and apprised
the home minister of the situation and how people were being treated in
the state.
"The CID works under the Karnataka home minister (K.J.
George) against whom fingers are being raised," Joshi said after
staging a protest with other MPs from the state near the Mahatma Gandhi
statute in the parliament complex.
Former chief minister and Lok
Sabha member from Shivamoga B.S. Yeddyurappa said the BJP would seek
permission from Speaker Sumitra Mahajan to raise the issue in the Lok
Sabha.
"Why is the Congress government in the state hesitating to
refer the case to the CBI when Ravi's parents have also sought a probe
by the central agency?" Yeddurappa asked.
In Bengaluru, the
legislative assembly sitting was adjourned till Monday amid shouting and
sloganeering by opposition lawmakers against the government for not
allowing a CBI probe into Ravi's death.
As soon as the budget
session commenced, opposition BJP and JD-S members gathered near the
speaker's podium and pressed for a CBI inquiry.
The ruling Congress maintained that the CID probe was underway to find out if Ravi's death was suicide or caused by other means.
Later,
BJP and JD-S members submitted a memorandum to Governor Vajubhai Vala
at Raj Bhavan, seeking his intervention for handing over the case to the
CBI.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) activists held a
protest in the Karnataka capital during the day, demanding a CBI probe
into Ravi's mysterious death. They also clashed with police when they
were not allowed to march towards Vidhana Soudha.
Protests also took place at Kolar and Tumakuru against the state government for not allowing a CBI probe.
Ravi,
who hailed from Tumakuru district, was deputy commissioner of Kolar in
2013-14 where he became popular for taking action against sand and land
mafias.