Whistleblowers who were martyred for raising voice against wrongdoings

The mysterious death of 35-year-old DK Ravi, a 2009 batch IAS officer has once again put the spotlight on the issue of how the Indian bureaucrats and whistle-blowers have to lose their lives while performing their duties in an honest manner.

DK Ravi, an upright and straightforward officer, was found hanging in his apartment on Monday, March 16 in Koramangala, Bengaluru.

DK Ravi, who had earlier took on sand mafia as the deputy commissioner in Kolar was transferred to Bengaluru as the additional commissioner, enforcement in the state commercial taxes department.

His postmortem was conducted on late Monday night in the Victoria hospital and report confirmed that it was a suicide case.

Presently, CBI is investigating the case and is likely to submit its findings in 90 days.

Earlier, CID was handling the probe, but with massive protests, the Karnataka government had to finally, entrust the charge of investigation to the CBI.

Meanwhile, Let's take a look at some of the brave whistle-blowers who lost their lives, in an attempt to wipe out the loopholes in the system and didn't care about the consequences of their tough actions.

Lalit Mehta, RTI activist: Lalit Mehta used RTI to expose NREGA related scams. He fought for the social audit of NREGA. He was killed on May 15, 2008 in Jharkhand.

Satyendra Dubey: 30-year-old Satyendra Dubey was gunned down on November 27, 2003, in Gaya, Bihar, for exposing corruption in financial irregularities in the Golden Quadrilateral NHAI project. He was serving as an Indian Engineering Service (IES) officer in the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

Shanmughan Manjunath: Manjunath, a Grade A officer in the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was murdered for taking on oil mafia. He exposed two illegal petrol pumps in Lakhimpur Kheri, Uttar Pradesh for selling adulterated fuel for three months. He was shot dead on November 19, 2005.

Narendra Kumar: In March 2012, Narendra Kumar, an IPS officer was killed for taking on illegal mining mafia in Madhya Pradesh.

S P Mahantesh: 48-year-old Karnataka Administrative Service officer had raised his voice against irregularities relating to allotment of land to cooperative societies in the state. On May 16, 2012, he was beaten mercilessly with an irod rod and after five days, he succumbed to injuries.

Other brave officers like Durga Shakti Nagpal, Ashok Khemka and Sanjiv Chaturvedi among others have been subjected to a lot of transfers and removal from their appointments as they took stern actions against wrong doers.