CBI starts probe, team includes 3 blind case experts
A team of CBI - Delhi unit special crime branch - will probe the death of 2007 batch Karnataka cadre IAS officer, Anurag Tewari, 36, who was found dead near the state guest house on Meera Bai Marg here on May 17.
On the recommendation of the UP government, the CBI lodged an FIR in the case with its Delhi unit on Friday.
The team, including three members considered experts in handling blind cases, reached Lucknow on Saturday.
The three officers were a part of teams that investigated the 2003 Madhumita murder case, the 2015 Sara Singh murder case, and the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam during the Bahujan Samaj Party regime in UP.
Main probe officer, additional SP Santosh Kumar, and two other officers are to arrive by Monday.
SIMILARITIES WITH SARA SINGH CASE
“There are similarities between Sara Singh and Anurag Tewari cases. Both their post-mortem examination reports did not specify the exact cause of death,” said a CBI official. “Similarly, the CBI needs to ascertain the sequence of events and a concrete motive to establish this death as murder.”
In Sara’s case, CBI chargesheeted her husband Amanmani, son of former UP minister Amarmani Tripathi. She was allegedly murdered in a car, on her way to Delhi from Lucknow. Later, it was made to appear as if she had died in a road accident.
The experts also played crucial roles in chargesheeting Amarmani Tripathi and his wife, Madhumani, in the murder of budding poetess Madhumita Shukla. They were sentenced to life .
The officers were also a part of the exhaustive probe into the multi-dimensional NRHM scam.
536-PAGE REPORT, 50 PHOTOGRAPHS
A source said the CBI team plunged into the probe straightaway after arrival, and collected documents and other details from Hazratganj police station inspector, Anand Shahi, who was the investigation officer.
Shahi was assisted by a special investigation team led by circle officer of Hazratganj, Avinish Mishra.
The CBI team collected the SIT’s 536-page report, which includes: FIR registered by the deceased’s brother Mayank Tewari with Hazratganj police, Tewari’s post-mortem examination report, and statements of over 25 people, including Tewari’s UP cadre batchmate, Prabhu Narain Singh (vice chairman, Lucknow Development Authority), with whom he was staying in the state guest house before his death.
They also collected around 50 photographs of the spot where Tewari was found dead, and the scene reconstruction carried out by forensic experts. The team is likely to stay in the state guest house.