Thiruvananthapuram, 2 Feb

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has sought a judicial inquiry into the death of real estate tycoon CJ Roy during an Income Tax search in Bengaluru on 30 January.

In a letter to Union Finance MinisterNirmala Sitharaman, Vijayan said the incident was "a blot on the tax administration" and pointed to serious lapses in search procedures.

Citing the victim’s brother, he pointed out allegations of harassment, quoting: "My brother cooperated fully and submitted all documents. But the officials kept returning. He told several times that the I-T trouble was unbearable..."

Vijayan said while agreeing that tax evasion is a serious problem, no action leading to the loss of a life can be justified in a democracy.

He said it is quite surprising that the person in whose premises, the Income Tax department was conducting a search, could lay hands on a gun and shoot himself, when the tax department personnel were going ahead with the search.

When such operations are on, the premises have to be under the control of tax officials and the safe conduct of the search is the responsibility of the officials, Vijayan said in the letter dated 1 February.

The searched person has rights which have to be respected by the officials, he said.