New Delhi: Dy.SP M.K. Ganapathy’s ghost has returned to haunt Bengaluru Development Minister K.J. George, with the Supreme Court (SC) yesterday ordering a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) probe into Ganapathy’s mysterious death and asked them to conclude the investigation within three months.
The Police Officer killed himself at a lodge in Madikeri (Kodagu) on July 7, 2016, after appearing in a local TV interview in which he had alleged harassment by George, then Home Minister, and two senior IPS Officers A.M. Prasad and Pronab Mohanty.
A Bench of Justices A.K. Goel and U.U. Lalit said there were “startling” facts in the case which needed to be thoroughly probed in a fair manner to find out whether it was a case of murder or suicide. “We are not determining the nature of the offence or who is guilty. But public confidence and societal requirement demand that the guilty persons must be reached,” the Bench said. The Court passed the order on a petition filed by Ganapathy’s father M.K. Kushalappa seeking a CBI probe.
The Court noted that the Officer had openly accused a Minister and two high-ranking Police Officers of harassment and had said if anything happened to him, only they should be held responsible.
“Out of three people named by the deceased, one is (then) Home Minister, while two others are senior officers. When a Police Officer openly makes such allegations and also says, if due to this disclosure, anything happened to him, only they (those named) will be responsible, in that circumstances, the investigation must be carried out by an independent agency,” the SC Bench said.
Senior advocate Jayant Bhushan, representing Kushalappa, submitted that the CID did not even wait for the forensic report and went ahead to file closure report, giving clean chit to the Minister and the Officers. During the hearing, the Court quizzed senior advocate Kapil Sibal, who represented the Government, on the kind of rope or material used by Ganapathy for ending his life and why there was no report on who fired two bullets from his service revolver in the lodge where he was found dead.
“Why he chose to end his life by using twisted cotton like cloth with leather attached to it instead of using his own service revolver. Hanging is surely more torturous,” the Bench asked him.
Sibal sought time to provide answers to all the queries. The Bench, however, said the matter has already been adjourned a number of times earlier. The Court also noted that the CID’s closure report was filed when the probe was supervised by none other than top Police Officers. “This was all the more reason to let an independent agency investigate it,” the Court said.
Kushalappa’s lawyer Jayant Bhushan said the CID probe was not fair as it had filed a closure report even before getting the forensic report. “When the deceased named a Minister and two Officers, the probe can’t be done by State agency,” he said.
This post was published on September 6, 2017 6:55 pm