Ktk govt announces judicial probe into DySp's alleged suicide

Facing Opposition heat, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today announced a judicial probe into the alleged suicide by a DySp, which has raised a political storm in the state.
As his government came under severe attack over alleged suicide by Mangaluru DySp M K Ganapathy, Siddaramaiah made the announcement in the Legislative Assembly, which has been rocked by the issue for the last three days.
Siddaramaiah said the judicial commission would be headed by a retired High Court judge and the report would come out within six months.
He rejected the demand for a probe by CBI, being demanded by BJP which is gunning for the resignation of Minister for Urban Development K J George, named by the deceased police official along with two top police officers for his extreme step.

Ganapathy(51) was found hanging from the ceiling fan in a room at a lodge in Madikeri on July seven, prior to which he gave an interview to a local TV channel, saying the minister and A M Prasad (IG-Intelligence) and Pranab Mohanty (IGP-Lokayukta) would be responsible "if anything happens to me."
Rejecting the charges against him in the Assembly yesterday, George, Minister for Bengaluru Development, had said he was ready to face any punishment if an inquiry finds him guilty and was ready to resign if the Chief Minister asks for it.

The Minister had also claimed that he was being targeted for belonging to minority community.

Government had earlier announced a probe by CID into the incident, which came just three days after the body of another DySP of Chikkamagaluru sub-division Kallappa Handibag (35), accused of kidnapping a person for ransom, was found hanging in his father-in-law's home at Murgod in Belagavi district.
In his marathon reply in the Assembly today,
Siddaramaiah said the state government was not afraid of CBI and it had equal faith in the central agency as in the case of state CID.
But, he added, the state CID was also competent to bring out the truth and its officers should not be demoralised by undermining the state agency.

"The CID will bring out the truth...No need to shield anyone... Minister or officers..." the Chief Minister said. A series of incidents involving alleged suicides by two DySps and resignation by another DySP has put the Siddaramaiah government in the line of fire by the Opposition parties, which allege that honest officials were being tormented.
The Siddaramaiah government faced the first major storm in March last year when senior IAS official D K Ravi allegedly committed suicide under mysterious circumstances, with the public and Opposition outrage forcing the government to hand over the case to CBI.