Sasikala prison row: Former DGP slaps Rs 20 cr defamation suit on ex-DIG Roopa

Former DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who was previously in the news for exposing the VVIP treatment being given to ousted AIADMK leader VK Sasikala at Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru, has now been slapped with a defamation suit by her former boss. The former Director-General of Prisons HN Satyanarayana Rao slapped Roopa with a Rs 20-crore defamation suit for making a baseless allegation, according to media reports.

Satyanarayana moved a city civil court, and included the editor of an English daily and the editor of a regional television channel as respondents. The court admitted the petition on Monday, and has issued summons for Roopa and the others to appear on or before December 16.

Speaking to TNM, Roopa said that she hadn’t received any communication so far.

In July, Satyanarayana Rao had served Roopa a legal notice, requiring her “to get an apology duly published in all leading newspapers in the next three days, failing which, I will be constrained to initiate appropriate legal proceedings both civil and criminal, against you to recover damages from you and the same is quantified as Rs 50 crore tentatively.”

Both Roopa and Satyanarayana were transferred out of their posts in July after a public feud erupted between them over the allegations of comforts being provided to Sasikala. In a report that Roopa submitted in July to the Karnataka Anti-Corruption Bureau, she had alleged that Satyanarayana had accepted a bribe of Rs 2 crore for the facilitation of special treatment for Sasikala. Sasikala, who is serving her sentence at the Bengaluru prison after being convicted in the disproportionate assets case.

The report proved to be an embarrassment for the state government. Roopa was transferred to the Traffic and Road Safety Department, and Satyanarayana later retired. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had then slammed both of them at the time for the leaking of the report to the media.

An inquiry was then launched, and a report submitted by the State Human Rights Commission noted that prisoners had been tortured for revealing that VIP treatment had been provided to influential inmates.