The allegation made by Bharatiya Janata Party leader P Raghuram during a debate in a television channel that former joint director of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) V V Lakshminarayana had slapped senior IAS officer Y Sri Lakshmi during a probe into illegal mining case triggered a wide debate.
Lakshinarayana is presently a Jana Sena leader and he contested the recent Lok Sabha elections from Visakhapatnam parliamentary constituency. He fancies a chance of winning the seat.
It was true that Lakshminarayana, when he was CBI joint director, had interrogated Sri Lakshmi, a 1988-batch IAS officer who was then secretary, department of mines, during the alleged illegal mining by former Karnataka minister Gali Janardhan Reddy at Obulapuram.
Sri Lakshmi was arrested, suspended, and spent several months in Chanchalguda Jail. In 2016, her suspension was revoked and she was assigned to Telangana cadre. She is now maintaining a low profile.
Those who were aware of the case investigation by the CBI those days say Lakshmi Narayana never used to indulge in manhandling of any accused, whether it was Satyam Ramalinga Raju or Gali Janardhan Reddy or several IAS officers or even Y S Jaganmohan Reddy.
“What he used to do was to question them in different ways. Sometimes, he used to make them sit for several hours without any questions to test their patience. Some other time, his subordinate officers used to pose the same questions again and again in different angles. They used to make the recording of their answers and post the same questions to different people. But he there were no complaints of Lakshminarayana using any third degree methods,” a former officials in the agency said.
Had he really slapped Sri Lakshmi those days, it would have become a big news. “She is an IAS officer and how could she keep quiet if an IPS officer slaps her?” he asked.
The BJP leader, however, claimed that he had come to know about JD slapping Sri Lakshmi from her colleague. He even said the incident had led to the iAS officer going into depression.
Lakshminarayana, however, refused to comment on the allegations. “If the person who has made such accusations has any evidence, let him come out. I cannot comment on speculations,” he said.