With pressure mounting on Karnataka to hand over the probe into the mysterious death of IAS officer DK Ravi to the CBI, the state government is committing one blunder after another.

by Aravind S Kamal

Bangalore: With pressure mounting on Karnataka to hand over the probe into the mysterious death of IAS officer DK Ravi to the CBI, the state government is committing one blunder after another, leading to plenty of speculation over Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's actions. A number of actions by the state government and police, simply do not add up.

Firstly, within hours of the discovery of Ravi’s body, Bengaluru City Police Commissioner MN Reddi declared it was a “suicide” (even before the body was taken to the mortuary for an autopsy)

secondly, the government announced that Ravi had allegedly committed suicide because of “personal reasons,” (again without recording the statement of his family members), which has been trashed by his parents, wife and father-in-law;

Thirdly, the government handed over the probe to the Crime Investigation Department (CID), but the same day, shockingly, it transferred CID Inspector General of Police Pronab Mohanty (segarded as one of the best officers in cracking such sensitive cases) out of the department.

The government justified the last decision as “routine”. It is a different subject that transfers of government officers belonging to important departments is a kind of “business” for politicians. But the untimely transfer of Mohanty from the CBI further clouds the issue.

What has been clear over the last few days, is that both Siddaramaiah and Home Minister KJ George are only inviting further trouble with their actions. In the last three days, agitations in the state have spread beyond locations where Ravi served, with people seeking a probe by the CBI.

But the moot question faced by everybody is – why is the government hesitating to handover the case to the CBI when the popular opinion is in favor of it?

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.

The entry of CBI into Karnataka could make a macro level impact and not everybody will be comfortable answering questions from the sleuths from the central agency.

Representatives of every firm (real estate, sand business, film producers, theatre owners), probed by Ravi, will undoubtedly be summoned by the CBI for questioning as part of routine investigations. As we have seen in the past, the private sector is never at ease in facing investigation agencies. They do not want their image to be tarnished in public. A lot is at stake for all these companies, including politicians, who have invested in them.

The state government’s actions give out the impression that there is a serious attempt to either cover up the case or derail a possible CBI investigation. Otherwise, the people of the state would not be up in arms against a party that came to power by enjoying the popular support of the masses just two years ago.

Given the speed at which Siddaramaiah became the chief minister, it is clear that the people had very high expectations from the Congress in Karnataka. But in the span of just one year, the Congress government is losing the faith of the people.

Karnataka is among the very few states in India where the CBI cannot take up a probe suo motu. The Karnataka government has to grant special permission to the CBI to probe cases in the state. Though Siddaramaiah appeared confident of handling the pressure being mounted by the Opposition parties, he suffered a major jolt when DK Ravi's parents staged a demonstration outside Vidhana Soudha seeking a CBI probe into his death.

Siddaramaiah now has no option other than to honour the people’s opinion, moreover that of Ravi’s family. If there is no hidden motive of protecting anybody in the case or concealing the truth and circumstances leading to the death of Ravi under mysterious circumstances, the state government should not waste time in handing over the case to the CBI.