Injuries suggest Tewari's death might 'not be natural'

Even a week after the mysterious death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer Anurag Tewari, who was found dead near a guest house here on May 17, the Special Investigation Team (SIT) has not been able to make any headway in the matter.

The doctors, who performed autopsy of Tewari's body, said that it had ''antemortem'' injuries.

According to the police sources here on Wednesday, the SIT would be recording the statement of the family members of Tewari. ''We also plan to take a member of the family to Bengaluru,” said a senior police official here.

A police team is likely to leave for Bengaluru in a day or two, sources said. The team would meet senior officials in the Karnataka capital to find out if Tewari was indeed probing some major scam in the Food and Civil Supplies department.

 Adding to the mystery behind the death, the team of doctors, which performed the autopsy, said that there were injury marks on Tewari's face. “There were injuries on inside part of his lower lip, face and chin,” said an official privy to the postmortem report. Sources said that the nature of injuries suggested that Tewari’s death might not be natural.

They also said that senior Uttar Pradesh IAS officer Prabhu Narain Singh, who was a batch mate of Tewari, and was staying in the same room where Tewari had stayed at the government guest house in the state capital, told the police that Tewari had been under stress and had requested for extension of his leave.

 Tewari, who was commissioner, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs department in Karnataka, was found dead by the side of the road a few metres away from the Meerabai Guest House here.

‘Officers being harassed’
JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday said he felt that harassment of junior IAS officers by their seniors is a reality in the present government, DHNS reports from Bengaluru. Reacting to queries on the mysterious death of IAS officer Anurag Tewari, Kumaraswamy said the CBI probe into the case will bring out the truth.

“However, there is no denying that all is not well in the functioning of the present government,” he said.