Former Kannur assistant district magistrate Naveen Babu’s wife Manjusha on Tuesday approached the Kerala High Court seeking a CBI inquiry into her husband’s death.

Manjusha, in her petition ,says that the circumstances surrounding her husband’s death raise serious questions about its cause.

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She alleges that whether it was a case of suicide by hanging remains doubtful. She expressed a lack of confidence in the ongoing probe by the Special Investigation Team (SIT), calling it inefficient and raising suspicions about the circumstances of Naveen’s alleged suicide.

In her plea, Manjusha highlighted concerns over the hasty inquest procedures conducted by the police and that the police failed to ensure the presence of close relatives during the inquest, as required by law. It was completed before she and her family members arrived at the scene, she said in the plea.

In the petition she accused the SIT of attempting to conceal evidence and alleged that it had encouraged P P Divya, then Kannur district panchayat president, to fabricate false evidence. “To support the false allegation of a bribe by the accused, a complaint, allegedly filed by Prasanthan, who applied for an NOC for a petrol pump before the office of the Chief Minister, was fabricated,” she said in the petition.

Manjusha further says in her petition that identifying individuals who interacted with Naveen Babu after the farewell function was crucial to uncovering the facts and circumstances leading to his death. “The possibility of a homicidal hanging cannot be ruled out,” she alleged.

She also pointed out that certain evidence, including CCTV footage from the Collectorate premises, the railway station, and the official quarters of the deceased, has not been seized by the SIT. She argued that this footage could provide critical insights into the events leading to her husband’s death.

Earlier , Manjusha had filed a plea with the Kannur Judicial First Class Magistrate Court, seeking a direction to BSNL and Vodafone India (Vi) to preserve the call data records of Divya, Kannur Collector Arun K Vijayan, and TV Prashanthan. She alleged that the SIT had not made sufficient efforts to retrieve these records, which could be critical to the case.

Kannur ADM Naveen Babu was found dead at his official residence in Pallikkunnu, Kannur, on the morning of October 15.He allegedly took his life after facing public humiliation and corruption accusations made by PP Divya, then the Kannur District Panchayat President, at the farewell meeting on October 14.Divya had accused him of intentionally delaying the issuance of a NOC to Prasanthan to start a petrol pump at Chengalai in Kannur.