Tewari's kin say he wanted to expose mega scam

The “mystery” behind the death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer Anurag Tewari, who was found dead in the state capital on Wednesday morning, acquired “political overtones” on Thursday.

The BJP-led Uttar Pradesh government sought to link Tewari’s death to what it claimed was the IAS officer’s role in “exposing” scams involving thousands of crores in the Congress-ruled Karnataka.

“The family of the officer said that he was about to expose scams worth thousands of crores in the Congress government in Karnataka,” Uttar Pradesh Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Kumar Khanna said in the Assembly on Thursday.

The matter was raised in the House by Leader of the Opposition and Samajwadi Party member Ram Govind Chaudhary, who alleged that the officer was murdered. He demanded a thorough probe.

In his reply, Khanna said that a panel of four doctors had conducted the postmortem. “The cause of the death was not conclusively established... his viscera has been preserved,” he said.

The minister said the government has nothing to hide. “We have nothing to hide. The government will probe the matter and the guilty will not be spared,” he said.

The Opposition members, however, said that the incident exposed the government’s tall claims about law and order in the state. They later staged a walkout.

Tewari, who was the commissioner in the department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs in Karnataka, had arrived in the state capital from Mussoorie in Uttarakhand after undergoing training, and had been staying at the Meerabai Guest House in the city for the past two days.

His body was found lying on the side of the road, a few metres away from the guest house.

Family cries foul

The family of Tewari has claimed that he was an “honest” officer and might have fallen victim to a conspiracy hatched by some “corrupt” officials.

Tewari’s brother Alok said that the officer had become a “villain” in the eyes of his superiors after he had “unearthed” a scam worth Rs 2,000 crore in the department of food, civil supplies and consumer affairs in Karnataka.

“He was under tremendous pressure from his superiors. He had brought the scam to the notice of senior officials, but they did not take any action,” Alok charged. The family members also claimed that Tewari apprehended threat to his life and wanted to change his cadre.

He had also sought a month’s leave as he was under great stress, but his leave application was rejected and was he asked to report for duty immediately.

The officer’s father B N Tewari had recently retired as a faculty member in the department of chemistry at a degree college in Bahraich.

The father refused to allow a second post-mortem of his son’s body, which was taken to Bahraich on Thursday for performing last rites.