The United Democratic Front (UDF) government is reportedly examining whether to refer the politically controversial death by suicide of former Additional District Magistrate (ADM) Kannur K. Naveen Babu to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
Naveen Babu’s family, including his wife and Revenue department official, K. Manjusha, and his brother, Praveen Babu, a lawyer, had recently called on Chief Minister V.D. Satheesan and Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, and reiterated their demand for a CBI inquiry into the politically stormy suicide abetment case in which the Kerala police had arraigned Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader and former Kannur district president P.P. Divya as the sole accused.
Officials said the government has not yet issued a formal notification of consent authorising the CBI to investigate the case. They said it was likely the government would seek legal opinion and weigh the family’s request in the Cabinet.
Health Minister K. Muraleedharan told reporters that Mr. Satheesan had promised justice for the bereaved family. Moreover, he said the case had public importance, given the family’s accusation that the law enforcement under the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had gone the extra mile to protect the CPI(M)’s Kannur leadership implicated in the ADM’s death.
’13 anomalies’
Mr. Praveen Babu told reporters in Pathanamthitta that the family had pointed out 13 “anomalies” in the affidavit filed by the previous government in the case in the Kerala High Court.
(The prosecution’s case against Ms. Divya centred around the allegation that she voiced publicly an alleged corrupt intent in the delay on the ADM’s part in granting sanction for a fuel outlet in the district at Naveen Babu’s farewell meeting at the Kannur district Collectorate in October 2022).
Mr. Praveen Babu said the police did not question Prasanthan, who was the applicant for the license. “It did not probe the benami angle. Revenue records relating to Prasanthan’s partners disappeared from the Collectorate,” he added.
Naveen Babu’s death had caused a political storm, with the UDF, then in the Opposition, accusing Ms. Divya of publicly humiliating the ADM in front of his colleagues. The UDF also accused the CPI(M) of duplicity by “falsely declaring” solidarity with Naveen Babu’s family while senior leaders turned up in strength to receive Ms. Divya upon her release from prison after she received bail in the case.
The UDF had also projected the CPI(M) nomination of the investigation officer in the case, T.K. Retnakumar, as the party’s candidate from the Kottur municipal ward in Sreekandapuram municipality in Kannur in the local body elections as a telling example of the LDF government’s Janus-faced approach in the case. It had also demanded that the then Kannur District Collector Arun K. Vijayan be brought under the ambit of the police probe.
CPI(M) State secretariat member M.V. Jayarajan said the High Court and later the Supreme Court had rejected the family’s demand for a CBI probe and vested trust in the Kerala police investigation. He termed the UDF’s reported move to refer the CBI as a “political witch-hunt.”
Published – May 31, 2026 05:35 pm IST
