(Editor’s note: This report is published in good faith and in the interest of public information, based on a document officially submitted to the police. This website may not concur with or subscribe to any of the contents herein and may not be held responsible for the publication.)
Bengaluru: Well-known RTI activist T J Abraham has filed a complaint at the Madivala police station in the south division of the city, expressing serious apprehensions about the way the kin of the late IAS officer, D K Ravi, conducted themselves after his death.
He has also named a few firms who had encroached upon government land as vengeful and unhappy suspects, who were affected directly or indirectly by the actions of non-corrupt, upright, honest and courageous officer, D K Ravi. All the parties mentioned were those which had been made public by the media and were available in public domain. In normal circumstances all those mentioned should be treated as suspects / accused in the murder of the IAS officer, he has stated.
Abraham has raised some serious issues in his complaint. Constructing the events as published in the media and available in public domain, he has sought probe into the following:
1. Why did Ravi go to his house at 11.00 am – to get murdered or commit suicide?
On the day of his death, March 16, 2015, Ravi left his in-laws’ residence in Nagarbhavi and reached his office in Koramangala at 10.30 am. He did not wear his trademark, crisp linen shirt to work. He held a 20-minute meeting in his office but “his mood was uncharacteristically somber and unusually lack-lustre”. If it’s a murder, given the character and proven track record of Ravi’s nature, none of his publicly-known enemies could have forced or threatened him to go to his flat at that time. So it is amply clear that he had volunteered / agreed to go to his apartment, on being asked to come or asked to go, which he is bound to obey for personal or emotional reasons. If he was murdered in his apartment, did murderer/s know that he would be in the flat?
2. According to media reports, “His wife, who was staying in her father’s house in Mallathalli, tried to contact him over phone. As he did not answer the calls, she contacted his office where she was told he had left the office in the morning”.
Kusuma, married to him for four years, later called Ravi’s driver, who told her he was at the apartment and that he had not come out after he went inside. When Kusuma failed to reach Mr.Ravi on his mobile phone, she called the driver around 4.30 pm. If Ravi was murdered by strangers in his house, how did they know that he was alone and that his wife was also absent?
3. Reports further say, “The incident came to light around 6.30 pm when Kusuma, who is a lecturer in Ambedkar Institute of Technology, and her father came to the flat on the ninth floor of Prestige St John’s Wood apartment on Tavarekere Main Road. Worried over Ravi not responding to their calls, they used a duplicate key to enter the home, and found him hanging from the bedroom ceiling fan by a sari. TV Channels broke the news of Ravi’s death around 6.45pm”.
Undoubtedly the first entrants into the apartment / scene of occurrence of death were Ravi’s wife and her father. They opened the door using a duplicate key. No forceful opening of the door. Not a single mention anywhere of Ravi’s driver accompanying them into the flat while he had been waiting there itself for his boss to come out since morning.
If Ravi was not murdered but had committed suicide, did he leave a death note?
4. The city police commissioner, M N Reddi, said “a dog squad and a forensic team has been deployed. They will look into several aspects before reaching any conclusion. “As things stand, it appears to be a suicide. I cannot say anything more as investigation is still on,” Reddy told reporters outside the apartment. “No death note was found.” “Prima facie, it looks like a case of suicide. Until the inquest is conducted, we cannot come to a conclusive understanding.”
Abraham has pointed out, firstly, that a death note would surely be left behind with specific names of those who had pushed a person like him to a point of ending his own life, to teach them a lesson. Secondly, if it is a suicide a person would surely leave a death note to avoid unnecessary trouble / complications to unconnected people.
The character and life of Ravi demonstrated that he had genuine humane and public interest and, more specifically, as he was well-educated person. Giving trouble to those who meddle with him was in his blood and he really cared for those who he liked. If he committed suicide and left a death note, where is it?
5. The first visitor/s to enter the scene of crime of the death were the wife and his father-in-law, without the driver who allegedly had been in the parking area since morning. Did they enter with the driver or was he called in later? The locked door was opened with the duplicate key in the possession of Ravi’s wife. The door was not bolted from inside and there was no death note.
Abraham has referred to a front-page news in an English daily of Friday, March 20, which provided alarming details of the family, which needed attention. A woman course-mate of the IAS officer scotched speculation that they were in a relationship and she shared with chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee the chilling call details, text messages and emails sent to her by Ravi before his death, The coursemate, currently serving in a neighbouring district, rushed to Bengaluru after she learnt of his death and came clean in the light of reports that she was romantically linked with him.
She told the chief secretary how her course-mate repeatedly pleaded with her to “cooperate” with him and to end her marriage to her husband, a software engineer-turned-realty entrepreneur”. Ravi called her several times on Monday and threatened to take the extreme step if she did not “cooperate” with him, but she said she remained steadfast in her decision to not break up her marriage.
During her meeting with the chief secretary, she also offered to cooperate with police officers during the probe into the death, according to official sources.
“Sources said this case of a one-sided love affair gone wrong had its impact on Ravi’s marital life after his wife Kusuma learnt of it, resulting in frequent arguments.At one point, Kusuma and her well-connected kin reportedly threatened the IAS officer that they would file a complaint of dowry harassment against him, a move which could have besmirched his record as an officer of integrity who dared to take on the rich and the powerful involved in illegal sand mining and evasion of taxes while executing real estate projects.”
“On his part, Ravi was also upset that Kusuma had not revealed her own past – she had reportedly eloped and secretly married her beau while in college. Perhaps, the prospect of facing the ignominy of being charged with dowry harassment, coupled with his course-mate’s resolute rejection of his advances escalated levels of stress, sources said.”
The next day, the publication claimed to stand by its earlier report of March 20, 2015. If Ravi committed suicide, what are reasons that could have definitely led to his commission of the act?
If it was a suicide, it could have possibly been possible for three reasons, says Abraham
a. According to the news report, Ravi’s personal, one-sided emotional attraction / relationship to / with the female IAS batch-mate, could have driven him to commit suicide. A person being strong in public life can be weak in personal / emotional situations, which is nothing unusual.
b. According to the news report his wife and his father-in-law had threatened him of publicly maligning and destroying his image, by filing a complaint of dowry harassment against him, a move which could have besmirched his record as an officer of integrity.
Being a bold and upright officer, who is held in high esteem and seen as a person with high integrity in public life, the fear of facing public humiliation and disgrace, could have led him to decide that it would be better to die, than live after being publicly disgraced by his own wife, which again is not at all unusual.
Everyone would agree that the very media, which had until then hailed him, would have assailed his character and would have literally assassinated him on the basis of his wife’s false and fabricated story / allegation of dowry harassment.
If it is a choice between truth and TRP, the media would have gone for TRP. Even in that case the media would have gone Hammer and tong against him for at least three continues days competing with each other. Because in India whatever is told by a women is considered as gospel truth.
If Ravi had left a death note, whose names should have been in it? If there was one, being a strong person in public life, Ravi, while dying, would not have spared the ones who pushed him to take such an extreme step.
This is not just a possibility but sure behavioral requirement. This would definitely have been done, given the “I-will-never-lose-nor-bow-down-before-anyone” attitude he was known for. He would have won even in his death.
If this news report is true, the death note would not have the names of his publicly-known enemies mentioned earlier, says Abraham in his complaint. For the daring personality that Ravi was,he would not hang himself out of fear, but, instead, he would rather have gone after them even more rigorously, to teach them a lesson which was his nature.
If the death note was removed, who could have removed it, and who would have benefited by removing it?
1. It could have been removed – if at removed – it could be only his wife and father-in-law. They are the only ones who entered the room first where Ravi was found hanging.
2. Just for argument’s sake, if the names of the publicly-known enemies of were mentioned in it, the wife adn father-in-law would have been very happy to allow the police to find or make it public.
3. If they have seen the death note, with the name and details of the female IAS course-mate of the IAS officer mentioned, the wife and father-in-law would have been happy to give to the police and make it public.
4. But, if they had seen their own names in the death note, would they have allowed it to be seen by the police or the public?
Abraham further says that it is only Ravi’s wife Kusuma and her father Hanumantharayappa who would have benefited by destroying or removing the death note.
The probable conclusions that can be arrived at are:
1. It could not be a murder, because he was found dead in his apartment at a time when he was supposed to be in his office.
2. For argument’s sake, if Ravi was made to come home, it could have been only by his wife or a relative, who could lovingly or under threat demanded of him to come home, because of some emergency / blackmail or asked him to go to the flat for some reason on the same lines.
3. If it is a suicide, it could have been for the reasons stated already. Hence Abraham has demanded that the investigating agency initiate proceedings against the said two persons, under sections 306 and 201 of the Indian Penal Code.
Late news:
1. Ravi’s father-in-law, Hanumantarayappa, has said in a TV interview that he had taken a serious view of Abraham’s statement and was taking suitable opinion on the future course of action.
2. Rohini Katoch-Sepat, DCP, has said that Abraham’s complaint would be passed on to the CID for further investigation.
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