Kerala High Court accepts wife's petition demanding CBI investigation

Kochi:

Kerala High Court on Wednesday K. Accepted Manjusha's plea for a CBI probe into the death of her husband, Kannur Additional District Magistrate Naveen Babu, who was found hanging at his official residence.

After the preliminary hearing, the court directed to serve notice to the Kerala government and the CBI.

It also directed the present investigating officer of Kerala Police to submit the case diary and fixed the case for hearing on December 6.

In the court, Manjusha's lawyer stressed that the only way to bring out the truth is through a CBI investigation.

Joining the issue, opposition leader VD Satheesan said that no proper investigation has been done till now as people who should have been interrogated have not been interrogated even after a month has passed.

“Despite the request of Babu's family, who demanded that the post-mortem should not be conducted at the Government Kannur Medical College, it was done there and the inquest and autopsy were conducted before Babu's family could reach there. So everything is mysterious,” Satheesan said.

Incidentally, Babu was considered one of the cleanest officers in the Revenue Department, to which Kerala Revenue Minister K. Rajan had also indicated.

Babu was found dead in his official quarters on 15 October, a day after he was given an official farewell from Kannur.

In her petition, his wife has raised concerns about the undue haste with which the interrogation and autopsy were conducted before the arrival of family members.

The sequence of events that led to Babu's suicide began when Kannur district panchayat president and CPI-M leader PP Divya arrived at the farewell function uninvited and made some critical comments against Babu, accusing him of being involved in corruption.

When the incident occurred, Kannur District Collector Arun Vijayan, who was presiding over the event, maintained silence and did not make any statement when she walked out after making brief remarks against Divya Babu.

The very next day on 15 October, Babu died by suicide and after the uproar, Divya resigned from the post of Kannur District Panchayat President.

She had been absconding for several days after a case was registered against her on October 17.

After anticipatory bail was rejected by a local court on 29 October, Divya was arrested by the police and kept in Kannur jail till 8 November until she got bail.

In a note of alleged corruption, it later emerged that TV Prashanth, an electrician by profession working at the Government Medical College in Kannur, had applied for a petrol pump and Babu had delayed giving the No Objection Certificate for the same. Prashant and Divya's husbands are colleagues in the hospital.