UP police to investigate IAS officer's death

Lucknow: A Special Investigation Team was constituted on Thursday to probe the death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer Anurag Tiwari (36) in Lucknow, as the issue generated heat in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly for the second consecutive day.

The five-member SIT, headed by Circle Officer Hazratganj, to probe the case has been asked to submit its report within 72 hours, Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Kumar told PTI.

Regarding allegations by family members of the deceased that it was a case of murder, the SSP said they have not given any application for registration of an FIR yet. "They (family members) told us that Anurag was not allowed leave by seniors in Karnataka, but the police are probing the matter professionally, looking at all the angles," Kumar said.

Tiwari was found dead on Wednesday under mysterious circumstances on a roadside in the high-security Hazratganj area here, hardly a kilometre away from the Uttar Pradesh Assembly. He was cremated on Thursday at his native place in Bahraich district of Uttar Pradesh, where large number of locals and bureaucrats were also present.

‘Tiwari was about to expose scam’
As opposition members raised the matter vociferously in the Assembly, the government informed the House that the deceased was about to expose scams worth thousands of crores of rupees of the Congress-led government in Karnataka. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Suresh Khanna's response came amid allegations from the opposition benches that Anurag, posted as Commissioner in the Department of Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs in Bengaluru, was murdered.

"It is true that the body of the officer was recovered on Wednesday. The post-mortem was conducted by a panel of four doctors and as the exact cause of death could not be ascertained, his viscera was preserved," the minister said.

The opposition members tried to corner the ruling BJP over the law and order situation soon after the House met for the day. The matter was raised by the Samajwadi Party during Question Hour with its member Nitin Agarwal alleging that the IAS officer was murdered in the high security area, thus "exposing tall claims of government over law and order."

The SP members also jumped into the well of the House to raise the matter. Speaker Hridaya Narain Dixit, however, said the matter could not be raised during Question Hour and asked the members to return to their seats. Leader of the Opposition Ram Govind Chowdhury said the ‘murder’ of the IAS officer in VIP area was a serious matter.

Congress Legislature Party leader Ajay Pratap Lallu also raised the matter while demanding a CBI probe into the incident. Khanna informed the House that a probe was already on.

However, dissatisfied with the reply, the members of SP, Congress and BSP staged a walkout from the assembly. The issue figured in the House again during discussion on the Motion of Thanks to the Governor for his address to the joint sitting of the legislature.

Leader of BSP Legislature Party Lalji Verma slammed the Yogi Adityanath government on the law and order front. "What is the plan for controlling crime...an IAS officer's body has been recovered and a film-style loot takes place in Mathura...," he said, stressing that incidents of crime have increased in the state ever since the present government came to power in March this year.

Anurag, a 2007-batch IAS officer, was staying at the Meera Bai guest house with a batch mate after attending a mid-career training programme at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie. He was in his sleepwear when he was found dead on Wednesday, which also happened to be his birthday. The SSP said that the postmortem was carried out by a panel of four doctors. The cause of the death appeared to be asphyxia. "Hence, viscera and blood samples have been preserved for clinical analysis and the heart for histopathological examination," Kumar said.