RANGASAMUDRA (MADIKERI): The family of DySP M K Ganapathy heaved a sigh of relief on Tuesday after the Supreme Court handed over the probe into his suicide case to the CBI.Speaking to Express on Tuesday, Ganapathy’s brother M K Machaiah said from day after Ganapathy’s death, the family had been demanding that the case be handed over to CBI as Ganapathy himself had accused Minister K J George and senior IPS officers A M Prasad and Pronab Mohanty of harassing him. Machaiah said the family was opposed to state government agencies handling the case.
He said CID officers had visited their house and promised to ensure justice if they cooperated with the probe. “However, later they destroyed all evidence to give a clean chit to George and the IPS officers,” he alleged. He said that police had even refused to register an FIR despite a complaint being lodged. He said family staged dharna at night in front of Kushalnagar police station to press for registering a case.
Ganapathi’s father M K Kushalappa said his son was an honest police officer and did not yield to any kind of influence. He said the state government had tried to shield the accused, but the Supreme Court provided justice at last.
Deputy SP Ganapathi was found dead in a lodge in Madikeri on July 7 last year. He had given an interview holding Minister K J George and two IPS officers responsible for his death. All the three secured anticipatory bail from High Court and on September 18 ,2016 the CID filed a B-report exonerating all three.
The original complainants — Ganapathi’s wife Pavana and son Nehal Ganapathi —withdrew their complaint saying that they would not question the B-report. However, Ganapathi’s father Kushalappa , mother Ponnamma, brother Machaiah and sister Sabitha appealed to the court to include them as petitioners. Pavan Chandra Shetty, who represented Ganapathy’s family before the JMFC court and High Court, told Express that High Court had rejected the writ petition seeking a CBI probe. Challenging the order, a SLP was filed in Supreme Court.