Anurag Tiwari death: IAS mafia can derail CBI investigation, says retired officer

The investigation in the tragic death of Karnataka cadre IAS officer Anurag Tiwari is getting murkier with new revelations coming to fore everyday.

A retired IAS officer has now sent a letter to the Chief Secretary of the Uttar Pradesh government, demanding a proper investigation into the death of the young IAS officer and alleging that a 'corrupt IAS mafia' had the power to even mislead the CBI.

MN Vijaykumar, who was transferred the highest number of times in his career, alleged in his letter it was the modus operandi of the 'IAS mafia' to silence the honest officers in Karnataka.

In his letter, Vijaykumar alleged, "The corrupt IAS mafia in Karnataka is so powerful and ruthless that it has the capacity to derail proper investigation by tampering documentary evidence to mislead even the CBI."

Sensing difficulties ahead for the CBI when they begin interrogating officers, Vijaykumar wrote, "the life of any honest serving officer who wishes to give information about threats to Shri Anurag Tiwari's life, will be made miserable by corrupt officers."

India Today also received a copy of the letter dated May 22, in which Vijaykumar said it is his duty to provide certain critical information to the authorities involved in probing the mysterious death of Anuraj Tiwari. He believes this is necessary since such information is bound to be suppressed by senior IAS officers in the state.

"I myself survived three attempts on my life (twice while under police protection that took place after the first attempt was reported in the New York Times) from my seniors for reporting their corrupt activities to various authorities in the government. My exhaustive documentation from 2005 to 2015 about how corrupt senior officers harass honest junior officers has enabled me to give authentic information about the modus operandi of corrupt IAS mafia to silence the honest officers in Karnataka," he wrote in the letter.

"I am sure Shri Anurag Tiwari would have revealed to honest officials who worked under him about the threats he was facing from corrupt senior officers. I also did the same thing while I was in service. But I went to the extreme of informing the very officers who were threatening me for exposing their corrupt activities to hold them accountable and responsible if I was killed," he wrote.

Vijaykumar also wrote about corruption in the Anna Bhagya Scheme of the state government -- the same scheme in which Tiwari claimed to have found ongoing scams before he was found dead. "I was informed in 2014 that huge money was being looted in rice procurement for Annabhagya program," Vijaykumar wrote.

He then went on to explain the methods through which the scam was being carried out:

#1 Procuring substandard rice and paying higher price, pocketing a huge commission.

#2 When there is stock of good rice, procuring already rotten rice at a higher price and replacing good rice with rotten rice and selling the good rice to illegally earn money.

#3 Making the good rice to deliberately rot to procure fresh rice, to get more commission.

MN Vijaykumar said he had written a letter on to the state Chief Secretary, with copies sent to the Lokayukta, on August 21, 2014 as well, but no action had been taken till date.

"Shri Anurag Tiwari, though reluctant initially, after being confronted with some documents had spoken for about two hours before he went for training to some persons from an organization about the scam in Food and Civil Supplies Department and informed them that he was not being supported by his seniors," Vijaykumar wrote.

On the UP government's decision to transfer Tiwari's case to the CBI, Vijaykumar said it should not turn out to be just like what happened in the case of late IAS officer DK Ravi. "The highest investigation agency should create faith in the citizens, that everything is being done properly. When many doubts are raised, they should address those issues but this was not done then," Vijaykumar told India Today.

(With inputs from Ameena Khan)

Also read: IAS Anurag Tiwari death: BJP MP writes to Yogi Adityanath demanding CBI probe