Express News Service By

BENGALURU:Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is telling his ministers the CID investigation into the death of IAS officer D K Ravi is almost done, and the report will be out by next week. “They have completed 70 per cent of the investigation. The remaining 30 per cent will be done soon,” the chief minister is understood to have told his colleagues after a Cabinet meeting on Thursday.

Asking his colleagues to remain tight-lipped and not to respond to any Opposition charges, Siddaramaiah said that the reason for the death of the upright officer was personal and the investigation would confirm it.

“Let everyone know the reasons for his death. We have not done anything to make him kill himself,” he is said to have told his ministers, while also ruling out a CBI probe.

“The Opposition is trying to politicise the death by bringing Ravi’s parents to the Vidhana Soudha. We will let everyone know how he died,” Siddaramaiah is said to have told his ministers. Describing the CBI as a political tool that the BJP would use to create trouble for the Congress government in Karnataka, he is said to have reiterated his confidence in the CID.

Meanwhile, K H Muniyappa, Kolar MP (Congress), met Siddaramaiah and sought a CBI inquiry. “Ravi was an efficient officer and I had high regard for him. Since I am being blamed for his transfer out of Kolar, I have urged the chief minister to hand over the case to the CBI,” Muniyappa told Express.

A senior minister said the state government was unwilling to hand over the case to the CBI as the Centre could use the opportunity to damage the ruling Congress politically. “What is the guarantee that CBI won’t summon MLAs, ministers, bureaucrats, Opposition leaders and even the chief minister? Won’t that put the government under pressure?” he said.

When state agencies are aware of the reasons behind the death, what is the need for an outside agency, he argued.