This Article is From Mar 30, 2015

IAS Officer DK Ravi's Junior Abused, Threatened By a Lawmaker, Says Karnataka Lokayukta

IAS Officer DK Ravi's Junior Abused, Threatened By a Lawmaker, Says Karnataka Lokayukta

IAS officer DK Ravi was the Deputy Commissioner of Kolar District when his junior was allegedly threatened.

A state legislator in Karnataka is now being investigated for allegedly threatening a junior of senior bureaucrat DK Ravi, whose death is being investigated by the country's premier investigating agency, the CBI.

Varthu Prakash, an independent law-maker from Kolar, allegedly called Mr Ravi's junior after four trucks of illegally-collected sand had been seized in the Kolar district, where Mr Ravi was the Deputy Commissioner at the time.

"Varthur Prakash criminally intimidated the said subordinate to the deputy commissioner, with abusive words saying that he would get the said official trapped by the Lokayukta, unless the said lorries got released," says a press release from the office of the state's ombudsman or Lokayukta, which conducted a preliminary inquiry into the phone call after the conversation was released by opposition leader HD Kumaraswamy.

The Kolar police is likely to file a police complaint or FIR against Mr Prakash, who has been avoiding the media since the audio recording was released.

He says he has released the secretly-recorded audio to to drive home the point that police should investigate possible threats Mr Ravi may have faced due to the nature of his work.

Mr Ravi, who was found hanging in his apartment on March 16, had a reputation as a brave and honest officer who took on powerful mining and sand lobbies.

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