Cops to question deceased IAS officer Vijay Shankar's family

Tilak Nagar police on Wednesday handed over the body of IAS officer B M Vijay Shankar to his family after doctors did a post-mortem at Victoria Hospital.

Shankar, 59, Additional Mission Director-1, Sakala, was found hanging in his Jayanagar house by his family on Tuesday evening. He is suspected to have ended his life.

Speaking to DH, Joshi Srinath Mahadev, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Southeast), said an investigation was underway on why Shankar took the extreme step. “No death note has been found. We’re looking at this unnatural death from all possible angles,” he said.

The DCP added: “We will question his family, friends and office staff to find out whether he had shared his problems with them. We don’t want to comment much on the investigation at this stage.”

Doctors tested Shankar for Covid-19 and the report came back negative.

Shankar was arrested last year, shortly after the multi-crore IMA Ponzi scam surfaced. Shankar, who was then the deputy commissioner of Bengaluru Urban, was accused of taking a bribe from IMA founder Mohammed Mansoor Khan for submitting a favourable report about the company’s businesses to the state government.

The IMA scam is currently being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). Joshi said they were yet to get the status of the investigation.