Daijiworld Media Network - Madikeri (SP)

Madikeri, Oct 31: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) officials filed chargesheet running into 262 pages relating to the suspicious death of the then deputy superintendent of police (DySP), M K Ganapathi, in the court here on Wednesday October 30.

Although the case was taken up by the state COD, at the request of family members, the Supreme Court had ordered investigation to be conducted by CBI in the case. The CBI had taken over the case from the state COD. CBI officials from Chennai visited the town several times for investigation and filed chargesheet after about three years.

The team of four officials led by CBI Chennai DySP Ravi and CBI public prosecutor, Subodh, arrived at the court and filed the chargesheet.

Madapanda Ganapathi was working in the office of inspector general of police Mangaluru as DySP. When he was serving as police circle inspector at Madiwala Bengaluru police station, he was subjected to departmental inquiry relating to allegation of dereliction of duty. Ganapathi was irked by the behaviour of higher officials, in spite of having worked efficiently and honestly. He also had faced flak from higher ups in a case relating to handling the attack on churches on Mangaluru. It is said that as Ganapathi used to oppose wrong things in the police department, the seniors tried to corner him. He had confessed about his predicament with his close ones and his friends were not in a position to help him in this situation.

Frustrated, Ganapathi, a native of Nanjarayapatna near Kushalnagar, came to Madikeri from Mangaluru on July 7, 2016, hired a room in Vinayaka Lodge there, and arrived at a local news channel along with documents. In his interview given to the channel, he blamed the then home minister, K J George, senior IPS officers, ADGP A M Prasad and ADGP Pranav Mohanty of intelligence department. He accused them of nepotism, corruption, harassment within the department, character assassination, attempt to frame him in a old case in which he was not wrong, verbal and other types of harassment in church attach cases etc. The channel had aired the entire interview immediately.

On getting information from Mangaluru, Madikeri town police had begun search for Ganapathi and found that he was in Madikeri. They confirmed that he was in Vinayaka Lodge. They visited the room in the lodge and found from the window that Ganapathi had hanged himself. Later, the room was broken open in the presence of parents of Ganapathi and shifted the body to the district hospital mortuary.

The issue had given rise to widespread protests all over the state. George had to resign as home minister even though he said he never met Ganapathi. The then Congress government sent senior IPS officers on leave and handed over the case to COD. The COD report absolved the minister and officials of all charges. An inquiry commission led by K N Keshavanarayana investigated the incident and submitted a report, details of which were never revealed.

Parents of Ganapathi approached Supreme Court and got order for entrusting the investigation to CBI.