IAS officer found dead on his b’day
A Karnataka cadre Indian Administration Services (IAS) officer was found dead on his birthday on Wednesday under mysterious circumstances in Lucknow’s Hazratganj area.
Police have ruled out any foul play behind the death of Anurag Tewari, a 2007 batch IAS officer, during initial inquiry. He would have turned 36 on Wednesday.
SSP Lucknow Deepak Kumar said the post-mortem findings suggested that the IAS officer had suffocated to death. He said a panel of doctors mentioned asphyxia as their finding in the report but still did not confirm the reason for his death. He said asphyxia was a condition when the body was deprived of oxygen, causing unconsciousness or death. The SSP said the doctors had preserved the viscera, heart and blood sample for further examination. He said the videography of the entire post-mortem process was done to maintain transparency in the entire proceedings. Some of his batchmates said Tewari was under depression after he separated from his wife a few months ago.
Tewari, a resident of Uttar Pradesh’s Bahraich, was staying at the Meera Bai Guest House in Hazratganj for the last 2 days with his batchmate Prabhu Narain Singh, who was named as the vice-chairperson of LDA last month. Tewari was the commissioner of the food civil supplies and consumer affairs department in Bengaluru.
Tewari and Singh came to Lucknow after attending a mid-career training programme at Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration in Mussoorie 2 days ago.
The IGP said Tewari was found lying dead only 10 metres from the entrance of Meera Bai Guest House in his sleepwear. He said the Singh and Tewari had dinner together on Tuesday. He added Tewari went for a walk at around 6am while Singh went to play badminton at the BBD Badminton Academy in Gomti Nagar.
He said the UP100, an emergency response service, received a call at around 6.40am about a dead body lying. According to the inspector of Hazratganj police station AK Shahi, Tewari’s body had no other injury except one on his chin. Tewari was identified from an ID card recovered from his belongings. Tewari also visited his house in Bahraich after returning from the training. The officer is survived by his father BN Tripathi, a retired teacher, mother Sushila and 2 brothers. He was the youngest. The police were waiting for Tewari’s family to arrive for further legal proceedings.Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah condoled the IAS officer’s death on Twitter.“Shocked to learn about the unfortunate demise of Karnataka’s IAS officer in Lucknow. My condolences to his family,” he posted.Meanwhile, the Karnataka government has sent its two senior officials to Lucknow to get details of the incident.“To get complete details about Anurag Tiwari’s death, the chief minister has sent IAS officers Abhiram Shankar and Pankaj Kumar Pandey to Lucknow,” CMO officials said.