Lucknow, May 18: An Uttar Pradesh BJP minister today accused Karnataka's Congress government of a hand in the "murder" of the IAS officer found dead on a Lucknow roadside yesterday, claiming the bureaucrat was about to "expose a scam" in Bangalore where he was posted.

A special investigation team (SIT) has been constituted to probe the death of Anurag Tiwari. It will submit its report within 72 hours, senior superintendent of police Deepak Kumar told PTI in Lucknow.

Minister Suresh Kumar Khanna said a second autopsy had been ordered on the body of Tiwari, whose post-mortem report said he had died of suffocation but did not pinpoint the exact cause.

Khanna's comment came in the Assembly after Samajwadi member Ram Govind Chaudhary alleged that the "murder" of Tiwari, whose body was found 1km from chief minister Yogi Adityanath's residence, "was a reflection of poor law and order" in Uttar Pradesh.

Tiwari was "about to expose a multi-crore scam in the Congress-led Karnataka government", the Uttar Pradesh parliamentary affairs and urban development minister insisted, echoing charges levelled by the 2007-batch IAS officer's family in Bahraich, Uttar Pradesh.

The Bangalore commissioner for food, civil supplies and consumer affairs was found dead in his sleepwear on his 36th birthday around 6.20am, 20 metres from the VIP guesthouse where he had been staying since Monday. He had an injury mark on his chin and bloodstains below his nose.

"We are probing all aspects of the case and will come out with the truth," Khanna declared.

He cited media reports quoting Tiwari's family members as saying that many politicians and bureaucrats in Karnataka didn't like the IAS officer.

"Many politicians and government officials in Karnataka were annoyed with my brother because he had discovered a multi-crore scam and was preparing to expose them,"

Tiwari's elder brother Mayank has told reporters.

"Anurag had told us he would soon hand over evidence of the scam to the CBI."

Mayank rejected the police's initial suggestion that Tiwari had been out on a morning walk. "He was a late riser and never went for a morning walk," Mayank claimed.

Tiwari's father B.N. Tiwari told reporters: "He was a bit disturbed because a particular senior officer in his own department was working against him. We want a CBI probe."