Officer's death: K'taka CM writes to Adityanath for thorough probe

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday asked his Uttar Pradesh counterpart Yogi Adityanath to order a thorough probe into the circumstances leading to the death of an "upright" state-cadre IAS officer.

As the family of late IAS officer Anurag Tiwari and the Opposition raised questions over the "mystery" surrounding his death, Siddaramaiah shot off a letter to Adityanath seeking probe by a "competent team" of investigators.

"It is very important that the whole incident including the circumstances leading to and the cause of death is thoroughly investigated by a competent team of investigators and professionals," Siddaramaiah said.

He requested Adityanath to direct the authorities concerned to "do the needful."

Describing Tiwari as an upright IAS officer, Siddaramaiah said his "untimely and unfortunate demise has caused great anguish to us."

Tiwari, a 2007-batch IAS officer serving as commissioner of the Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs Department, was found dead under mysterious circumstances by a roadside in Lucknow's Hazratganj area on May 17 morning.

Speaking to the reporters earlier, Siddaramaiah said, "He (Tiwari) was a Karnataka officer, he died there (Lucknow). We don't know what the reason is. Post-mortem report says death was due to cardiac arrest. Let them (UP police) do any inquiry, government will give all cooperation."

Asked about the suspicions that Tiwari may have been murdered because he was probing into a scam involving the food department, he said, "Don't say all these things just because someone is saying it. Let them investigate, everything will be known."

The Uttar Pradesh police set up a Special Investigation Team yesterday to probe into Tiwari's death.

Tiwari's father B N Tiwari has alleged his son was eliminated, while his brother Mayank has demanded a CBI probe into the matter.

"My son was very honest. Corrupt officers did not like him. They must have somehow got him murdered," he had said.