The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a petition filed by Manjusha, wife of  late  Naveen Babu, Additional District Magistrate, Kannur, seeking a CBI probe into the death of her husband.

A bench of Justice Sudhanshu Dhulia and Justice K Vinod Chandran refused to interfere with the Kerala High Court order, which refused to order a CBI investigation into the ADM’s death.

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Appearing for Manjusha, Senior Advocate Sunil Fernandes argued that Naveen Babu had an impeccable service record of 30 years and was at the fag end of his career. As he was about to be transferred from Kannur to his home district, a farewell function was organized, in which PP Divya, a leader of the ruling CPI-M government in Kerala, came and made certain scurrilous remarks against him.

The event was followed by circulation of a video with unsubstantiated allegations, which caused Naveen Babu extreme distress. Even so, he told his driver to pick him up the next morning on time as he had a train to catch for his home district. Next day, he was found dead in his official residence

Alleging suspicions on the circumstances of the death, the senior counsel prayed that the court direct a CBI enquiry. The court, however, found no ground to transfer the investigation to CBI and disposed of the case.

A single bench of  Kerala High Court on January 6 rejected the plea filed by Manjusha,  Naveen  Babu’s wife seeking to transfer the probe into her husband’s alleged suicide to the CBI,observing  that the accused merely having ties with the ruling political dispensation was not ground to transfer investigation to the CBI.The Court had also stated that the appellant could not point to any material flaw in the current investigation, warranting a CBI probe.Manjusha  moved the division bench against the single bench order.