Ever since DIG Roopa’s explosive letter alleging special treatment to VK Sasikala in Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara Central Prison has created a huge controversy, the state police chief has scrambled to explain his position. The report, which alleges that rumours are doing the rounds that DGP (Prisons) Satyanarayana Rao accepted a Rs 2 crore bribe, has had both Roopa and Rao at loggerheads.
In response to the DIG’s report, DGP Sathyanarayana has submitted a 16-page report to the Home Department, in which he has listed the developments from the day Roopa assumed charge as DIG (Prisons) till the day the letter was written.
According to a report by the Deccan Herald, the DGP’s report states that DIG Roopa resorted to leaking her report to the media as she was not given additional responsibilities.
“The report states that DIG Roopa was given the responsibility of supervising the Central Prison in Parappana Agarahara, the Open Air Prison in Tumakuru. However, DIG Roopa wanted additional responsibilities of the Dharwad, Kalaburgi, Ballari and Belagavi prisons,” DGP Satyanarayana Rao said.
According to the DGP, DIG Roopa had asked him for these additional responsibilities and he had directed her to take up the matter with the Home Department.
“The Home Department told her to contact me and she once again requested me the second time. At the time, she had argued with me about this matter,” he added.
He pointed out that DIG Roopa had violated directions multiple times and had also gone against the Supreme Court order and had invited media persons to help establish the identify the families of several convicts for the Roopantara programme. Roopantara is an initiative by the prisons department to help rehabilitate convicts and help them reconcile with their families.
“I had sent her a memo when she invited the media at the time as well. We had argued about it after she had uploaded pictures of the convicts on her Facebook account,” he added.
The DGP said that he had also sent DIG Roopa a memo as she had skipped Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s meeting of IPS officers on June 10. He alleges that she went to the prison instead of attending the meeting.
He denied giving special treatment to Sasikala or accepting any bribe.