Bengaluru: The state government on Monday made a sensational claim in the High Court giving credence to news reports that deceased IAS officer DK Ravi wanted to get into a relationship with a woman IAS officer, according to Bengaluru Mirror.
The claim came in a statement of objections in response to a petition filed by Sudhir Reddy, the woman IAS officer’s husband, asking the High Court to prevent Chief Minister Siddaramaiah from revealing details of the CID investigation into the death of Ravi in the Assembly.
Justice Abdul Nazeer, who heard the case at his residence on Sunday, passed an interim order granting the petitioner’s request. As a result, the CID’s progress report in the case, that was expected to be announced in the Assembly on Monday, did not happen even as the CM announced that the investigation would be handed over to the CBI.
Refuting reports, the government’s statement of objections clarified, “It is submitted that after the CID took over the investigation, a woman IAS officer who was a batchmate of deceased Sri DK Ravi, voluntarily approached the agency on March 18, 2015. The said statement of the IAS officer would disclose that she and the deceased shared more than a cordial relationship that generally exists among batchmates. The statement would disclose that there were also financial transactions between the two. It would further disclose that the deceased wanted the relationship to progress into more than just friendship.” The Advocate General submitted the details of the investigation in a sealed cover. The AG said that the woman officer had “made herself available for investigation,” and the reports suggesting she had been interrogated late into the night were false, and aimed at defaming the government.
The post-mortem report details were also given in a sealed cover. The AG urged the judge to read one of the conversations in the sealed cover.
The judge read it and the covers were sealed again and asked to be kept in safe custody. The AG said it was reported that the woman IAS officer was interrogated till late night. But, the truth is, she had given a voluntary statement. “It was not interrogation. We have videotaped it.”
In the objections, the government has stated there was an exchange of SMSes and WhatsApp messages between Ravi and the woman officer. “Based on the statement, the investigating agency has seized the mobile phones of the IAS officer. Both SMS as well as WhatsApp messages exchanged by the officer and deceased were found from the phone. These messages very clearly disclosed the state of mind of the deceased officer as well as the relationship he shared with her. The transcript of messages is herewith produced in a sealed cover for the kind perusal of this Hon’ble Court. It can be very clearly seen from the investigation material herein produced that the investigation is proceeding in the right direction.”, reports BM.
