The Kerala Cabinet on Thursday issued a notification requesting the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to probe the politically controversial death of former Kannur Additional District Magistrate (ADM) K. Naveen Babu.Officials said the Cabinet decision was based on the bereaved family’s petition. The government also notified the Centre of the request under Section 6 of the Delhi Special Police Establishment (DSPE) Act. Officials said the CBI would evaluate the case and advise the Central government to grant the agency jurisdictional authority to probe the ADM’s death.Naveen Babu was found dead in his official quarters after attending a farewell meeting hosted by his colleagues at the Kannur District Collectorate in October 2024.Naveen Babu’s family attributed the death to the alleged public humiliation meted out to the ADM at the function by Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] leader and then Kannur district president P.P. Divya.Ms. Divya had reportedly arrived uninvited at the function and allegedly insinuated that corrupt intent had prevented the ADM from granting a timely sanction to a private entrepreneur seeking to set up a fuel outlet in the district. Subsequently, the police arraigned Ms. Divya as the sole accused in the case on the charge of abetting the ADM’s suicide. Police cover-up allegedHowever, Naveen Babu’s family alleged a State police cover-up to shield Ms Divya and demanded that the CBI probe the “benami angle” in the case. They also alleged that the partnership record of the firm represented by the applicant for the fuel depot had disappeared from the District Collectorate. The family also raised suspicions about the circumstances surrounding Naveen Babu’s death and doubted the forensic examination report’s veracity. The High Court and the Supreme Court had earlier turned down the family’s plea for a CBI probe, based on an affidavit filed by the then Left Democratic Front (LDF) government.Naveen Babu’s death had caused a political storm, with the UDF, then in the Opposition, accusing the CPI(M) of duplicity by “falsely declaring” solidarity with Naveen Babu’s family while subverting the police to save Ms Divya from legal jeopardy.The UDF had also projected the CPI(M) nomination of the investigation officer in the Naveen Babu case, T.K. Ratnakumar, 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. Published - June 04, 2026 04:02 pm IST