Bengaluru: Giving a new twist to the death case of IAS officer Mr D.K. Ravi, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy claimed that Ravi, 20 days before his death, had received a threatening call from a powerful person in the government.

Speaking to reporters here on Friday, Mr Kumaraswamy said that the caller had threatened to eliminate Mr Ravi and wondered if this issue was also being probed by the CID.

The former CM also came down heavily on Chief Secretary Mr Koushik Mukherjee, saying that the officer, who was desperately seeking ‘rehabilitation’ after his retirement, was arm twisting a woman IAS officer to give the statement, which would corroborate the government’s ‘suicide due to one sided love going wrong’ theory.

“At the moment, there are three vacancies for those seeking such rehabilitation—One in KERC, another in KAT and the last one at the RTI panel. Mr Mukherjee wants to get rehabilitation after his retirement in any one of these organisations. After tarnishing Mr Ravi, the government is tightening the noose around a young IAS officer to save its skin and may ultimately push her to commit suicide,” Mr Kumaraswmay warned

Taking a dig at the “premeditated” government statement that Mr Ravi committed suicide after his ‘one-sided love’ went wrong, Mr Kumaraswamy asked if the CID had been asked to investigate only the telephone conversations between Mr Ravi and the lady officer or other angles also.

“After series of raids on powerful lobbies, Mr Ravi had received a threatening call on his BSNL mobile phone from a powerful person in the government. The caller had threatened to eliminate Mr Ravi. However, even before the investigation started, the government has made a statement that it was a suicide, which indicates the direction the CID probe will go,” he said.

Taking a dig at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s statement that Mr Ravi had made 44 calls to the woman IAS officer in one hour, Mr Kumaraswamy said the government was driving the lady IAS officer to the brink. “CID officials recorded a statement of the lady officer from 10 pm in the night till 2 in the morning. That shows the way investigation is being conducted. Now senior officials are forcing the lady officer to leave the state for some days to an unknown destination,” Mr Kumaraswamy charged.

(Inputs: DC)

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