CBI books Karnataka minister in DSP suicide case

Bengaluru, Oct 27 (IANS) The CBI on Thursday registered a case of abetment of suicide against Karnataka Minister K.J. George and two senior state police officials in connection with the suicide of Deputy Superintendent of Police M.K. Ganapathy.

Apart from George, who was earlier the state Home Minister and is now the Bengaluru Development Minister, the police officers booked by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are Additional Director-General of Police (Intelligence) A.M. Prasad and Inspector-General of Police Pranov Mohanty.

The CBI's move comes following Supreme Court's September 5 directive to probe the death of the police officer and submit an investigation report within three months.

Ganapathy had hanged himself to death on July 7, 2016 in the state's Madikeri, about 250km to the west of the state capital.

In a television interview given hours before his death, Ganapathy had accused George, Prasad and Mohanty of harassing him.

"The complainant (Nehal) expressed the suspicion about the death of his father and had filed a written complaint before the police sub-inspector at the Kushalnagar police station (near Madikeri) on July 10, 2016. However, the police officer had allegedly refused to register the complaint," stated the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the CBI.

The FIR quotes Nehal's plea before the court stating that the three accused were influential persons and had used their power to ensure that there was no police action.

The state's Crime Investigation Department (CID), which had initially begun probing into the case, had given a clean chit to the accused minister and the two senior police officers stating that "there was no evidence to establish the charge of abetment against the accused".

After a plea by Ganapathy's father M.K. Kushalappa, a CBI probe was ordered into the case by the Supreme Court.

Bharatiya Janata Party's Karnataka unit President B.S. Yeddyurappa demanded that George should resign immediately.

"George should resign immediately. If he continues in power, he will destroy all the evidence. CID already gave him a clean chit," he said.

George responded saying that the CBI has filed the FIR based on the "old complaint".

"The CBI has filed the FIR based on the old complaint. Let it investigate, it is supposed to finish the investigation within three months. Let the CBI give the report, then I will react," George told reporters here.

"Earlier, in the same case, I resigned (on July 18, 2016) and only after the CID submitted its report, I was taken back into the cabinet (on September 26, 2016). Let the investigation happen now, after which I will react," George added.