It has been six days since DK Ravi, 2009 batch IAS officer, was found dead in his Bengaluru apartment under mysterious conditions. The probe into the incident snowballed into major controversy after the police probe claimed that Ravi called his 2009 batchmate 44 times in a span of an hour the day he died.
However, a report in The Indian Express quotes unnamed police sources as saying that the woman IAS official had told investigating official DCP Dr Rohini Sepat Katoch that Ravi had been "harassing her" asking her to end her marriage within hours of his death being announced.
The woman IAS officer, who is posted in southern Karnataka and is married, was friends with Ravi prior to his marriage to Congress politician Hanumantharayappa’s daughter Kusuma.
The Indian Express quoted police sources as saying, "The IAS batchmate also told the police officer that she was being 'hounded' by Ravi and that she had refused his persistent 'demands'."
The Karntaka Police CID recorded her statement on Saturday and has said it will look into the relationship between the two IAS officials, the dead IAS official's marital relationship and his relationship with his father-in-law.
However, critics have questioned why the police has leaked details of the IAS official's personal life. Former Chief Minister and JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy had slammed the ruling Congress for maligning the IAS officer's reputation.
Police investigations are still to ascertain whether the 36-year-old Ravi committed suicide or was murdered. The police had earlier said that the case looks like suicide although no suicide note was recovered from Ravi's apartment.
The 36-year-old DK Ravi was the joint commissioner in the commercial tax department since November 2014 following his transfer from Kolar where he was the deputy commissioner.
Amidst outrage over his mysterious death, Congress President Sonia Gandhi advised the Karnataka CM to hand over the case to the CBI, following which the Karnataka government decided to hand over the probe to the central agency.
The state government had earlier ruled out a CBI inquiry and had ordered an investigation by the state police. Opposition parties had staged protests against the state's move. Police Commissioner MN Reddi had ruled out any foul play from the circumstances under which Ravi's body was found.
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".
"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, had told PTI.
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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.
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."
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 in 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."
With inputs from agencies
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