Congress, ministers made CM relent

Bengaluru: Chief minister Siddaramaiah was firm on not handing over the probe into the mysterious death of IAS officer DK Ravi to the CBI. According to sources, the CM argued at a meeting of the council of ministers here on Monday that he was not in favour of the CBI probe. The meeting had been called to elicit the ministers' opinion in the matter. But the Congress high command's diktat to hand over the probe to the CBI was working on the ministers' minds. Many of them are learnt to have suggested to the CM not to delay a decision on the issue and hand it over to the CBI. Senior minister HK Patil said the government should not allow the BJP-JD(S) combine to gain political mileage out of this. The CM continued to be the target of the opposition even after he announced the decision. The opposition made it clear it won't let the government off the hook. JD(S) members joined the BJP in staging a dharna in the well of the House as the sitting began. Opposition leader in the assembly Jagadish Shettar threatened to move a privilege motion against the CM for revealing details of the investigation and expressing his opinion on the cause of death. In the council, opposition leader KS Eshwarappa claimed Siddaramaiah's statements violated the high court order issued on Sunday, which barred the government from making the interim report public. BJP's G Madhusudan said the CM had indirectly committed contempt of court by saying his intentions to reveal the report were foiled by the judiciary's diktat. Eshwarappa demanded the resignation of city police commissioner MN Reddi and home minister KJ George. Reddi on notice The BJP filed a breach of privilege notice against Bengaluru city police commissioner MN Reddi for retorting to statements made against him in the council on the issue. Eshwarappa had taken Reddi to task for declaring Ravi's death as suicide on prima facie evidence, without waiting for the forensic report. Reacting to this, Reddi reportedly said he had made that statement with full responsibility and would stand by it. BJP MLC Ganesh Karnik, who moved the privilege motion, sought action against him. Admitting the notice, chairman DH Shankarmurthy asked BJP members to furnish complete details of his statement with supporting documents to enable him to take a suitable decision. -TOI