CID to probe insider's role in stockbroker's suicide: George

The State government has directed the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) to probe whether someone within the police force played a role in the circumstances that led to the suicide of stockbroker Ripon Malhotra.

The CID will probe the insider’s role in the entire episode and submit a preliminary report shortly, Home Minister K J George told Deccan Herald.

He, however, clarified that the government had not come to the conclusion that former Commissioner of City Police, B G Jyothiprakash Mirji, and DCP (Crime) Devaraj are involved. “We will take action based on the report,” he added.

According to George, there are reports that some insiders in the police force ensured careful drafting of the suicide letter and sent it to the Chief Minister’s office to settle personal scores. “We don’t know yet if Malhotra himself drafted the letter and dispatched it to the CM’s office or someone else is behind the entire drama. We will take strict action against those found guilty,” he added.

The minister claimed Devaraj’s transfer was “normal practice” to replace an officer against whom the probe is ordered to ensure free and fair inquiry and to prevent him from influencing the probe.

Probe from today

The CID chief, Bipin Gopalakrishna, said that the department received a government order on Thursday, assigning Malhotra’s suicide case to it. The probe will be begin on Friday.
The investigators would question Mirji and Devaraj to ascertain if they had a role in Malhotra’s suicide. An IGP-rank officer would lead the investigation, Gopalakrishna added. “We have not set any deadline for the probe,” he said.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ordered the probe after he received a suicide letter addressed to him and reportedly written by Malhotra. In the letter, he accused Mirji and Devaraj of “harassing” him and “trying to extort” money from him. He claimed that the two officers demanded Rs seven crore from him to hush the matter up. He even said Mirji “behaved like a constable” to recover just Rs six lakh. He also alleged that Devaraj warned him of arrest if he didn’t repay the money owed to the depositors.