Kerala ADM's death: Family raises questions on collector's statement

Thiruvananthapuram: The row over the suicide of a Kerala official after being snubbed by a CPI(M) leader is witnessing fresh twist with the deceased's family raising suspicions on an adverse statement of Kannur district collector Arun Vijayan.

Amidst widespread allegations that the IAS officer's statement was part of a ploy to favour CPI(M) leader P P Divya, deceased additional district magistrate Naveen Babu's wife Majusha told the media on Thursday that they don't trust the collector's statement.

She said that the collector did not have a cordial relationship with Babu and many of his subordinates and there was no chance of Babu meeting the collector after being snubbed by Divya to share any personal grievances.

It was mentioned in the court order rejecting anticipatory bail to Divya that the collector had given a statement that Babu met him after being snubbed by Divya and said that there was a mistake on his part. Though the court did not consider it as admission of any corruption, Divya highlighted this in her bail application to substantiate her corruption allegation against Babu.

Babu, who ended his life on October 15, a day after he was humiliated by Divya raising corruption allegations, is widely considered as an officer with high level of integrity. Internal probe by the revenue department after Babu's death also did not find any lapses on his part. Collector Arun Vijayan also did not make any adverse remarks about Babu so far. So the collector's fresh statement raised many eyebrows.

Congress and BJP alleged that the collector was acting as per the instruction of the CPI(M) leaders to help Divya.