We had given Tewari a free hand; will cooperate with probe too: UTK

Bengaluru, May 24: Rubbishing the allegations that state government had not paid salary to IAS officer Anurag Tewari as baseless, Food and Civil Supplies Minister U T Khader has urged the people not to politicize the issue.

It is not true that the state government had not paid the officer the salary for the past few months as punishment. There was some delay in the salary payment due to some technical issues related to accounts, the minister said when media persons sought his reaction to the accusation made by the family members of the deceased.

“The government has treated the officer well. We had given him a free hand at work. We had never denied him leave, which he used to take quite often,” the Khader said and reiterated that there was no scam in the department as charged by Tewari’s family members.

Khader said he has assured the family members of the officer that the state government will extend full co-operation in the investigation and ensure that justice is provided.

Tewari, who was the Food and Civil Supplies Commissioner, was found dead under mysterious circumstances in Lucknow while he was walking in the morning. The Uttar Pradesh government has ordered a CBI probe into the case following charges of foul play by Tewari’s family members.

Mayank, the brother of Tewari, had charged that his brother was about to expose a Rs 2,000 crore scam in the department and that the Karnataka government had punished him by not paying him the salary.

Letter to UP govt

Meanwhile former IAS?officer M?N?Vijayakumar has claimed in a letter to the Uttar Pradesh chief secretary that IAS?officer Anurag Tewari, had stumbled upon a ‘scam’ in the food and civil supplies department.

In the letter, copies of which have been marked to the Cabinet Secretary, Karnataka Lokayukta among others, Vijayakumar has stated that according to his sources, Tewari was planning to probe deeper into the ‘scam’ after returning from his training programme.

However, Vijayakumar has not given details about the ‘scam’ but has stated that he is willing to reveal the details only before the investigating agency.

In his letter, Vijayakumar stated that before attending his training programme in Mussoorie, Tewari had interacted with a few people with documents about the scam and had said he would come back with more information. He also stated that he was not getting any support from his seniors.