BENGALURU: The Karnataka government on Friday requested the Uttar Pradesh government to conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the death of IAS officer Anurag Tewari in Lucknow two days ago."We will extend full cooperation to UP government in this regard," chief minister Siddaramaiah said.The move comes in the backdrop of Tewari's family alleging he faced harassment as food and civil supplies commissioner in Bengaluru. The family suspects foul play in his death even though the autopsy report suggests he could have died of asphyxia.The issue took a political turn with UP parliamentary affairs minister Suresh Kumar Khanna telling the assembly that Tewari was about to expose a Rs 2,000 crore scam in the Karnataka government's food and civil supplies department.Denying the allegations, CM Siddaramaiah said, "There is no scam in the food and civil supplies department, please do not speculate. We will request the UP government to inquire and we will cooperate with the authorities."Sources in the bureaucracy, meanwhile, maintained that Tewari was not subjected to any harassment from any sections."Tewari was transferred from Bidar to Bengaluru recently and was given prime posting as food commissioner. In fact, the department has been initiating a lot of refor ms and his predecessor Harsh Gupta too has been an honest and efficient officer. There have been no allegations related to any scam," sources said.In the past three months since Tewari took over as food and civil supplies commissioner, he was on election duty in Punjab for a month and on official training for more than a month. "Politics should not blur the cause of his death, a thorough probe must be done," a senior IAS officer said.

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