DK Ravi: An IAS officer who paid with his life to end corruption

Bengaluru: Young IAS officer DK Ravi's death under mysterious circumstances has raised several questions. Most of them are yet to be answered. The 35-year-old Ravi was from a very modest farming background and struggled to become an IAS officer. As Deputy Commissioner of Kolar district, he had earned a very good name. He had an open door policy for the poor and tried to eliminate corruption during his tenure.

According to locals, Ravi took on the sand mafia and had put an end to it in Kolar during his term there. When the local police showed reluctance to prevent the powerful sand mafia, he himself led the operation against them risking his personal safety. It made him a hero among the common people overnight. Finally, the same sand mafia allegedly got him transferred to Bengaluru. His transfer had led to protests across Kolar district for weeks.

He was also planning to build an international standard cricket stadium in Kolar district. He had raided several big real estate groups with close political connections and had confiscated the encroached government land. He had declared that he would even go to jail to save the public land.

To help the poor UPSC aspirants, Ravi was running a free coaching class on Sundays. After he was transferred to Bengaluru as Additional Commissioner of Commercial Taxes, Ravi took on the traders' lobby and tax evaders' cartel. He had raided some of the big business groups including Embassy, Rajesh Exports, Shubh Jewellers, RMZ Institution, Prestige Group, Raheja Group and Mantri Developers across Karnataka.

He had prepared a list of top - 50 tax defaulters and had started raids across Bengaluru. He had set himself a target of Rs.1000 crore tax collection from the defaulters and had collected Rs.138 crore in just two weeks. He had even forced a close associate of chief minister Siddaramaiah to cough up Rs. 8 crore tax dues.

His close friends claim that he was under pressure from his own department to slow down investigations and raids on the big people. They also claim that he had received threat calls from Dubai based underworld.

As an Assistant Commissioner in Sedam and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Zilla Panchayat at Koppal, Ravi had earned the respect and goodwill of the common people. His death has shocked the people in Hyderabad - Karnataka region too.

Ravi's death has led to unprecedented protests across Karnataka. Villagers in Kolar, Koppal and Gulbarga districts have blocked roads demanding that the culprits be brought to justice.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who is already under fire for the rampant corruption, will surely find it very difficult to handle the aftermath of a young IAS officer's mysterious death, which the police claim a prima facie suicide.