The Karnataka Home Department will finally send the contentious Vinay Kumar report pertaining to the alleged VVIP treatment being meted out to high-profile prisoners at Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara to IPS officer D Roopa. D Roopa, who is currently serving as the Inspector General of Police (Homeguards) in Bengaluru, had exposed the irregularities in the central prison in mid-2017 which stirred a hornet's nest.
An officer, who wished to remain anonymous, said, “We will be soon sending out the report through speed post to all those who have made RTI requests seeking the report.” The concerned prison department under-secretary Shobha could not be reached for a comment.
Speaking to TNM, IPS Roopa said she is yet to receive the reply of her RTI request as of Friday.
This even after the Karnataka Information Commission (KIC) in an order on November 27, 2018, had asked the Home Department to give a copy of the report within a month’s time to the officer. Prior to this, an initial RTI request by Roopa in January 2018 was turned down by the Home Department, following which the IPS officer approached the State Information Commission.
TNM has also learnt that the Home Department has not approached the Karnataka High Court on this matter to challenge the order by the Karnataka Information Commission.
Background
In a major embarrassment to the then Siddaramaiah government in 2017, D Roopa, who was then the Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, had submitted a report to her then immediate senior, Director General of Prisons H Satyanarayana Rao, about a quid-pro-quo system of special treatment of VVIP prisoners, like former Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa’s aide VK Sasikala and fake stamp paper mastermind Abdul Kareem Telgi.
The report which mentioned talks of Rs 2 crore being paid to unnamed prison officials as a bribe was leaked to the media creating rumbles.
It resulted in the immediate transfer of both the officers. A one-man committee led by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar was instituted by the then CM to probe the matter. Following this, Rao had slapped a defamation suit against Roopa.