He wanted nothing more than to serve as deputy commissioner so that he could stay connected with people. After an eventful stint of nearly six months as additional commissioner of commercial taxes, IAS officer D K Ravi was looking forward to a posting to his home district of Tumakuru so that he could fulfil this dream. On Monday, that dream died along with the several others the 36-year-old brave officer was chasing.
However, Ravi has left a lasting imprint on public consciousness with his fearless stance and his bold decisions. He had recently taken on the builder lobby by conducting raids on some top builders in the city.
Ravi never missed an opportunity to help farmers, a community from which he hailed. With Ugadi nearing, he had been garnering his resources to help a group of over 1,000 organic farmers from Belgaum set up a forum so that they could sell their products directly to the city.
An initiative of his that rubbed some people the wrong way was reviving the Karnataka Public Land Corporation. He went all out to set up a board to procure, develop and sell recovered public lands.
However, his innings as Kolar DC were a measure of the man and his work. Even after he took up his assignment in the commercial taxes department, this reporter would often spot people from Kolar visiting him with their grievances. It was either a plea for a road, water to their villages or funds for education. But politicians had not taken too kindly to clearing encroachments and handing over land to genuine farmers.
Ravi, though, was willing to stick his neck out for reforms. Recalling how his father had been made to run from pillar to post for a caste certificate for his admission, he believed officials should reach out to the public.
Reflecting on the impact of his actions, he had once remarked to this reporter that the positive outcome would be ‘welfare of the state and people’, the negative, a ‘transfer.’ The script, finally, ended differently.
Flow of events
11 am: D K Ravi reaches home from office (driver waits downstairs while he goes up alone)
6.30 pm: Wife, her parents enter home and discover body hanging in the bedroom; wife falls unconscious. Police were informed; she is rushed to a hospital
7 pm: Police arrive at the scene and cordon off the ninth floor; apartment security refuse entry to outsiders
​7.15 pm: IAS officers and other senior bureaucrats begin pouring into Ravi’s residence
7.30 pm: Forensic medicine and forensic laboratory officials arrive at the spot
8 pm: Ravi’s distraught wife and a relative return to the apartment
10 pm: The body is sent to Victoria mortuary for the post-mortem
