In a move that is likely to upset the Congress government in Karnataka, a state minister has named as an accused in the alleged suicide of DSP MK Ganpathy who died under mysterious circumstances in July last year.
In an FIR filed by CBI, Karnataka Minister for Bengaluru Development and
Planning, KJ George has been named as accused number one. Others who are named in the FIR are Bengaluru IGP lokayuktha Pranov Mohanty and ADGP State Intelligence.
Reacting to the CBI FIR, BJP Karnataka president BS Yeddyruppa demanded that KJ George be immediately removed from the cabinet, threatening a state-wide agitation if action was not taken. Yeddyurappa added that if George was part of the government, then it would be difficult to have a fair probe.
Former Karnataka Minister K J George was reinducted into the Siddaramaiah ministry on September 26, 2016, close on the heels of being given a clean chit by the CID in a case related to the alleged suicide of a Deputy Superintendent of Police. George, a close confidant of the Chief Minister, was administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vajubhai Vala at a ceremony held in Raj Bhavan.
George had resigned on July 18, soon after a court in Madikeri in Kodagu district directed police to register an FIR against him and two police officers in connection with the suicide of 51-year-old M K Ganapathy.
Ganapathy was found hanging from a ceiling fan in a room at a lodge in Madikeri on July 7, prior to which he gave an interview to a local TV channel saying the Minister and AM Prasad (now Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety) and Pranab Mohanty (now on central deputation as Additional Deputy Director General of UIDAI) would be responsible “if anything happens to me.”
The court had issued directions based on a private criminal complaint by Ganapathy’s son, Nehal, requesting it to direct police to take up investigation against the minister and the officers for allegedly abetting his father’s suicide.
Karnataka CID, which investigated the case, on September 17 gave a clean chit to George and two senior police officers in its ‘B’ report, filed in a court in Madikeri.
