As the open spat between two senior police officials over alleged Rs 2-crore bribe to provide VIP facilities inside the central jail to AIADMK’s VK Sasikala has become a major embarrassment to ruling Congress Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, on Friday the Government issued a show-cause notice to whistle-blower Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of Prisons D Roopa for alleged violation of the services rules.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said in Mysuru on Friday that the Government has issued notice to DIG prisons D Roopa for violating the service rules. He said, “If there is evidence or documents related to violation of rules or corruption, the official is free to bring it to the notice of the superior. But, repeatedly approaching the media is prohibited and we have issued a notice to DIG (Prisons) Roopa for violating the rules.”
“Her repeated statements in the media (even on social media) have embarrassed the department. If the officer had documents to support her claims she could have approached the senior officers instead of discussing those things in the media is against the service rule,” Siddaramaiah said, adding, “She has been asked to give a reply to the notice”, he noted.
Chief Minister also said that an inquiry has been ordered and retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar has been appointed to probe into the allegations. “We want the probe to be completed at the earliest and if the contents of Roopa’s report were found to be true, action will be taken against the guilty,” he added.
Meanwhile, D Roopa Moudgil, DIG (Prisons) of Karnataka, who exposed the VIP treatment being given to AIADMK leader VK Sasikala, on Friday alleged that she was being singled out by the State Government for doing her job. Talking to reporters in Bengaluru the day after she exposed senior jail officials for allegedly taking bribe to provide facilities to Sasikala feels letdown by the Government and finds that she has been targeted.
She said, “Targeting me is unfair. If action is to be taken then it should be against all and not just me.” “I did not break any service rules but ready for fair probe” she added.
“I didn’t speak to media first. The DG shared the details with media and so service rules should apply to all and not on one,” she said, adding, “let there be a fair probe, I will cooperate.”
D Roopa, an upright senior police officer in Karnataka who blew the lid on irregularities in Bengaluru jail, said it wasn’t fair that the Government was singling her out for action on grounds that she had spoken to the media but wasn’t acting against others.
In a report to the Karnataka Government, this week, the officer had alleged VK Sasikala, the chief of Tamil Nadu’s ruling AIADMK, is enjoying VIP facilities in prison including an exclusive kitchen. The report referred to “speculation” that Sasikala paid Rs 2 crores for privileges and her boss Rao could have been a beneficiary.
The officer’s report based on her inspection on 10 July, however, leaked out, forcing Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to announce an inquiry into her controversial findings.
DG Prisons, Satyanarayana Rao, who retires this month-end, has called her allegations “wild and baseless”. No special treatment is being given to Sasikala, she told reporters on Thursday. The State’s top jail department official also asserted that Sasikala had been put up in an “ordinary open women’s barracks on the first floor”.
Sasikala, a lifelong companion of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa, has been in jail since February. She is serving a four-year jail sentence for corruption.
According to Roopa’s report, Sasikala’s wasn’t the only beneficiary. Abdul Karim Telgi, the kingpin of a multi-crore stamp paper fraud that hit the headlines about a decade earlier, was another.
Meanwhile, Janata Dal (Secular) State president and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy asked the Government to order Director General of Prisons HN Satyanarayana Rao and DIG (Prisons) D Roopa to go on leave to ensure an impartial probe into allegations of corruption in the police department. “Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who also holds the Home portfolio, talks volumes about transparency and corruption-free administration, but he too lowered the dignity of the Chief Minister’s office,” the JD (S) leader said.