Bengaluru: Woman IAS officer’s statement to the CID, the agency which investigated the mysterious death case of her batch-mate D.K. Ravi before the CBI was called in, reveals that Mr Ravi’s behaviour was inconsistent and he ‘sounded disturbed’ on Sunday (March 15) a day before he was found dead. Further, the woman officer has reportedly revealed to the CID that Mr Ravi borrowed Rs. 10 lakh from her family.
In her statement to the CID, the woman IAS officer said, “We were cordial with each other only as colleagues. I got posted as Assistant Commissioner (AC) Tumkur and he was posted as AC, Sedam. Since I was posted in his native district he would call a few times, his brother had visited me then requesting for help on land and water issues.”
“Later, I got posted to Mandya as CEO, Ravi was doing well as Kolar DC and I congratulated him on the good work and was in touch with him on official matters. He was conducting coaching classes for KAS/IAS examinations and had requested me to give a lecture on economics - sometime in August. I went along with my husband. While I gave the lecture, my husband and Ravi interacted.”
“When we went to Kolar for the lecture, Ravi and my husband got talking. After this he made a request for some money as he wanted to invest it, he said. We discussed it at home and as he was persistent, we decided to give him the money. We gave him Rs 10 lakh. My husband deposited the money in an account named R & H properties, he asked for more money but we did not give it. This happened around September,” she stated.
“When he later asked for more money, I asked him the reason and he told me that he would convert the loan into an investment and buy some property. I did not agree to this and told him that it needs to be repaid. He said he was doing this from his early days and this time it was a big thing, he was planning to buy 100 acres. He would take loans from others and do this project,” the statement read. “Shortly afterwards, Ravi was shifted to the Commercial Taxes department. Initially, took sometime to adjust, but gradually he felt he did not have much work. He used to call me more often and we interacted and discussed work. He was however restless,” she told the CID.
“However, over the past few weeks his language and tone changed. I found it strange. As first I distanced myself but he was apologetic and requested that we remain good friends. We continued to interact as friends. In the last few days, his behaviour has been inconsistent. I informed my husband about this and we decided to ignore the guy,” she stated.
“On Sunday (March 15) he started messaging and asked if I could meet him as he wanted to discuss a few things. I asked him to tell me over phone what the issues were. He insisted on meeting me. I asked him to come home, but he was reluctant. I flatly refused to meet him elsewhere. He sounded disturbed but didn’t share the details. On Monday morning, he sent a lengthy message. I read a bit of it and could not continue reading as it was disgusting. I said this to my husband, this kind of behaviour was never displayed by him before. I and my husband decided we need to speak to him. Shortly, after sending this text around 11 am, he called and I gave the phone to my husband. I went about my work in the day. ”
By evening, the case was handed over to CID. The next day (March 18) I spoke to Mr Soumendu Mukherjee and asked for my statement to be recorded. This incident is very unfortunate. We lost a colleague, but it has left me enraged. There could be many reasons why the person did what he did, if he did it, but it is sad what I, my husband and my family had to endure because of this. I only request for a fair inquiry to look at all angles. I also request you to deal with the matter with sensitivity as it involves the life and career of a woman officer,” she stated.
