Three days after Karnataka’s Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Commissioner Anurag Tewari, was found dead in Lucknow under mysterious circumstances, the Special Investigative Team probing his death has now found that there is no CCTV footage of him walking out of the guesthouse on Wednesday morning. Media reports have also noted that there is no record of anyone visiting him during the intervening nights of May 16 and 17.
Anurag’s body was found on the road on Wednesday morning, near a guesthouse in which he was staying in Lucknow’s Hazratganj.
The SIT arrived in Bengaluru on Friday in connection with the probe. According to media reports, the Uttar Pradesh police will now question Lucknow Development Authority’s Vice Chairman, Prabhu Narayan Singh, who was Anurag’s batch mate and also an IAS officer.
Singh was living in the same room as Anurag in the Meerabai guesthouse in Lucknow. He is also said to have had dinner with Anurag and was in the room on the morning Anurag was found dead.
Adding to the mystery surrounding his death, the post mortem report states that he died of asphyxiation but the cause for lack of oxygen remains unknown.
As the autopsy was inconclusive, the forensic team has retained Anurag Tewari’s viscera samples and heart. The SIT will submit its report to the Uttar Pradesh government within 72 hours.
Anurag’s family members claim that he had proof of large scale corruption in the department he worked for.
“Anurag had some incriminating evidence against the Chief Minister, a few cabinet Ministers and also bureaucrats in his department. He had told me about this when he visited us in Bachraich on May 14. Anurag was scared to go back to Karnataka and he said that he may get killed if he returned,” alleged Anurag’s brother Mayank.
The deceased IAS officer’s family members have written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking a CBI probe into Anurag’s death.
"Anurag had evidence of the corruption that went on in his department and also on the Chief Minister. If a CBI probe is not ordered soon, then the politicians and corrupt officials Anurag was trying to expose will get their hands on the evidence and destroy it. Hence, I have written to the Prime Minister and asked him to initiate a CBI enquiry,” Mayank added.
In another shocking revelation, Mayank said that Anurag had not been paid his salary for five months.
“He had taken money from my father for his travel to Mussoorie, where he underwent training. He had only Rs 10,000 in his account on the day he died. He hated his job and said that it involved a lot of pressure from many powerful people. He always spoke of quitting. He had even applied for a transfer. He was thinking of resigning after submitting the evidence to the CBI,” Mayank added