Anurag Tiwari, 36, a Karnataka cadre officer was found dead on Wednesday.
Highlights
- Anurag Tiwari's body was found in early hours of Wednesday, his birthday
- UP police have launched murder investigation and asked CBI to take over
- Mr Tiwari's family met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath this morning
IAS officer Anurag Tiwari is seen entering a restaurant in Lucknow with his friend in the last available CCTV footage of him before he was found mysteriously dead hours later on May 17.
Four days after the Karnataka cadre officer's death, the Uttar Pradesh police have launched a murder investigation and asked the CBI to take over the case. The officer's parents have alleged that he was under pressure and that he had told them about a threat to his life a few months ago.
Mr Tiwari's family met Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath this morning. "We want the truth to come out. We want a CBI inquiry," said Mr Tiwari's brother Mayank Tiwari.
The 36-year-old officer's body was found in the early hours of Wednesday - his birthday - near a guest house where he had been staying with his batchmate. He was in his sleepwear. The police there were injuries but they didn't appear too bad. A post-mortem has not helped establish how he died.
After dinner, Mr Tiwari reportedly went back to his room around 11 am and was active on chats till about 2 am. The police estimate the time of death to be between 4.30 am and 6 am, since a police van detected nothing before that.
The officer's family says there was pressure on the officer to sign files that "he didn't want to". Echoing the allegations of some members of the ruling BJP, the Tiwaris also alleged that he had told them about exposing a big scam and "pressure from some powerful people" in Congress-ruled Karnataka.
Mr Tiwari joined the Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department in Bengaluru as Commissioner in January. According to one of his colleagues there, his ideas helped people tide over their water crisis in the state's worst drought-hit regions.
He had come to Lucknow after finishing a month's training in Mussoorie in Uttarakhand.
"My son was very honest. Corrupt officers did not like him," the officer's father BN Tiwari said.
His mother Sushila Devi has appealed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as well as the Chief Minister to investigate what happened to her son. "I have nothing to lose. I have already lost my young IAS son," she said.