D K Ravi death probe: CBI says driver crucial to probe

Bengaluru, April 17: As the Central Bureau of Investigation begins its probe into the death of IAS officer D K Ravi, the first person they will call in for questioning is his driver Elangovan. He will be summoned as a witness and not a suspect, a CBI officer informed Oneindia.

Elangovan has a long questionnaire awaiting him as there are various aspects that the CBI is looking to examine as it commences the probe into the case. Yesterday the CBI had registered a formal case into the death of D K Ravi after it was handed over the probe by the Karnataka Government.

D K Ravi was found dead in his apartment last month and the Karnataka police had almost concluded that it was a case of suicide due to personal reasons. The opposition had, however, accused the government of concluding too soon and smelt something fishy in his death.

Questions driver will have to answer:

The statement of the driver is extremely crucial to the probe. He was the person who was last seen with the officer before his death. The Criminal Investigation Department of Karnataka had recorded his statement and he had indicated that the officer appeared to be troubled over some personal issue.

What the CBI seeks to know from the driver is why he could not be contacted immediately after the death of the officer? There was some time lag in contacting him after the death of the officer was reported and the CBI would want to know the reasons for this.

The CID, however, had said that there was nothing fishy and they had obtained his statements a few hours after the incident. The CBI would want to know the exact sequence of events from the driver. They would question him about the persons Ravi met with before his death.

Not just this, we would want to know all the persons the officer had met with in the past couple of days and whether there were some suspicious circumstances that could have led to his death.

CID to question family and friends regarding Ravi's personal life

Family and friends to be questioned:

After the CBI takes into its possession also investigating material from the CID, it would call in for questioning the family members and friends of the officer. This is a very crucial aspect to the probe and will help us determine the exact reason for his death.

The family members who have also given their statement to the CID will have to appear before the CBI and answer questions relating to the officers life, his contacts and also spill out details of the people who had met him.

The CBI would try and find out if there was anyone threatening the officer and had he ever spoken about this with them. In addition to this the IAS officer friend with whom Ravi had spoken with last will be a crucial link to the case. The CBI would call her in for questioning too.

Tracking the case to Kolar:

The CBI will also go into details of his posting in Kolar where Ravi had worked as a Deputy Commissioner and had taken on the mighty sand mafia. The CBI would check to find if there was any link to him taking on the sand mafia and his death.

The CBI officer says that the sand mafia not just in Kolar but across the country is notorious and there have been instances of officers being attacked and also killed. On the probe list is also Ravi's latest action against builders and jewelers against whom he had taken action as a Commercial Taxes officer.

We will call in for questioning his colleagues and also those against whom he had initiated action, the officer from the CBI also informed.

No decision on exhumation of body:

The CBI says that it is too early to comment if the body of the officer will have to be exhumed. We are still going through the autopsy and post mortem reports. We will have them re-analyed and also question the doctor who prepared the reports.

If there is something amiss and we feel the need to conduct fresh examination then exhuming the body cannot be ruled out, the officer further stated.

The officer said that currently there are no suspects in the case. All will be summoned only as witnesses and depending on what we find we will start drawing up the list of suspects if there are any, the officer further pointed out.

OneIndia News