IAS officer death case; HC directs petitioner to file counter

The Karnataka High Court today directed a petitioner to file counter-objections to the state government's plea in a case pertaining to the "unnatural death" of IAS officer D K Ravi.
The government had filed objections to the petition filed by Sudhir Reddy, husband of an IAS officer and batchmate of Ravi, seeking restrictions of publication of any interim report or making any public statement pertaining to investigation being conducted by the government through CID.
The government is seeking vacation of restraint on publishing or making public the interim report pertaining to the investigation carried out by CID into the death of Ravi who was found hanging at his apartment here on March 16.

The High Court had, in a special hearing at the residence of Justice Nazeer on March 22, restrained the government from publishing any interim report, ahead of Siddaramaiah making an announcement in the Assembly.
Justice Nazeer directed Reddy's counsel to file counter-objections by day after tomorrow at the earliest.
The counsel assured the court that he would file it by tomorrow.

As soon as the proceedings began, Reddy's counsel submitted that the government should restrain from handing over the investigative material, which is in the sealed possession of the court, to CBI as it would give scope for publishing the "half-baked" contents of the interim report, which would "malign" his client's family image.

"The government should not hand over the sealed material in possession of the court to CBI as it will give a chance for media to publish the half-baked contents of the interim report, which will result in sullying the image of my client's family," he said.
Countering the submissions made by Reddy's counsel, Additional Advocate General A S Ponnanna, said as per law, the sealed material should be handed over to CBI for investigations.
"It is imperative under the law that the sealed material should be handed over to CBI for conducting investigations. The honourable court can direct the court registry to hand over the material to the investigating officer belonging to CBI when he comes here," he said.

Ponnanna said under special laws, parliamentarians enjoy full powers to make statement on public issues in the Assembly.
"The parliamentarians under the law have full powers to publish the interim report or making any public statement pertaining to investigation. It can be made on the floor of the Assembly," he said.
Justice Nazeer posted the matter for March 26.