The Karnataka unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party on Monday welcomed the Uttara Pradesh government's decision to recommend a CBI probe into the mysterious death of IAS officer Anurag Tiwari. However, the saffron party has also expressed concern over the Congress government in the state trying to “tamper with evidence” in the case.
Tiwari, a 2007 batch Karnataka cadre officer, was found dead in Lucknow a few days ago.
Soon after the Uttar Pradesh government decided to recommend a CBI probe into the case, the BJP leaders in Karnataka, who had written a series of letters to UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, welcomed the “prompt action”, while expressing concern over the Tiwari case too meeting the same fate as that of deceased officers—IAS officer D.K. Ravi and DySP M.K. Ganapathy. The BJP leaders alleged that Siddaramaiah government was witch-hunting honest officers.
“The actions of the Karnataka government in the previous cases of officers' mysterious deaths have raised suspicion. We fear that in Tiwari's case too, the evidence might be tampered with. As a former food and civil supplies minister, I have come across pilferage and had tried to streamline the system. I am afraid evidence—the relevant files which Tiwari might have gathered—may no longer be traceable. The CM and home minister have had long meetings after the incident. Such doubts are in the minds of the department officials too,” said Udupi-Chikmagluru MP Shobha Karandlaje, who had urged Adityanath to handover the case to CBI.
Despite the rumours of Tiwari having unearthed a scam worth Rs 2,000 crore in the food and civil supplies department in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ignored the demand for a CBI probe by the opposition parties stating, “The cause of action (death) has been in UP and it is for the UP government to take a call on CBI probe. We are ready to cooperate in the probe.”
On Monday, Siddaramaiah said, "We welcome the CBI probe. We will cooperate. Still maintain there was no scam we were told about."
Home Minister G. Parameshwar welcomed the CBI probe, while insisting there was "nothing to hide". "The central agency can come to Bangalore for any investigation. We will cooperate," he said.
Food and civil supplies minister U.T. Khader had raised apprehensions over Tiwari's alleged claims stating, “The deceased officer had hardly worked for 38 days in his current posting (as the commissioner of of food and civil supplies) as he was on deputation to Punjab during the assembly polls, and once back, he was again away in Mussoorie for a training.”
Ruling out the possibility of a scam, Harsh Gupta, principal secretary of the department said, “Tiwari was an honest officer. But none of us in the department have any clue of the alleged scam. I agree that there has been organised pilferage of grains in the public distribution system and we had brought in many reforms to curb it. In fact, we had cracked down on bogus rations cards much before Tiwari was posted in this department. He was getting to know the department and had deliberated on the reforms too. But the alleged scam in rice procurement from Chhattisgarh worth Rs 2,000 crore is something I am not aware of. The total amount of rice procured from Chhattisgarh amounts to around Rs 337 crore only.”
