In a special sitting held at the home office of a judge, the Karnataka High Court on Sunday evening restrained the State government and the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from publishing any interim report pertaining to the death of IAS officer D.K. Ravi. He was found hanging in his apartment in Koramangala on March 16. Also, the court restrained both the State and the CID from making any public statement on the probe.
Justice S. Abdul Nazeer passed the interim order on a petition filed by Sudhir Reddy, husband of a woman IAS officer, a batch mate of Ravi, allegedly the last person to have spoken to him.
Meanwhile, the woman officer broke her silence on the incident with a post on her Facebook page stating “Truth shall prevail”. The CID had questioned her on Friday.
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However, the Court made it clear that its order would not prevent the probe with regard to “unnatural death” of Ravi.
The petition was moved for urgent hearing in the backdrop of media reports that the CID is likely to submit its interim report on Monday and the Government has proposed to make it public in the floor of the legislature, which is in session.
“The respondents are restrained from making or publishing any interim report or making any public statement pertaining to the investigation being conducted with regard to the unnatural death of late D.K. Ravi, an IAS officer, pending disposal of this writ petition. This, however, will not restrain respondents from continuing with the investigation…,” the order stated.
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The Court passed the order after hearing Senior Counsel Sajan Poovayya, who had argued that information based on any interim report in a criminal investigation cannot be made public unless the probe is complete and the final report is filed before the court as per the Code of Criminal Procedure.
It was pointed during the hearing that disclosure of any information would impact the right to privacy and reputation of the petitioner and his family members when the investigation is not complete.
The petition was filed in the morning and after obtaining permission from the Chief Justice it was posted for hearing before Justice Nazeer at his home office at Nyaya Grama around 4 pm.