Senior Karnataka police official D Roopa, who blew the lid off the alleged preferential treatment to AIADMK (Amma) chief VK Sasikala in Bengaluru central prison, today said that she was being targeted for exposing the VIP treatment given to the jailed leader.
"Targeting me is unfair. If action is to be taken then it should be against all and not just me," Roopa, Deputy Inspector General (Prisons), told reporters here.
Roopa also rejected allegations that she had spoken to the media before submitting the report, thus violating the rules. "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," she said.
Her reaction comes in the wake of Karnataka government accusing Roopa of breaking service rules by speaking to the media. The government has even issued a show cause notice to her.
Earlier in the day, CM Siddaramaiah had said that ‘it was absolutely against the rule book’. “The officer could have approached any of her senior officers about her allegations that prison officers have received bribe to provide special treatment to Sasikala. Instead, it is not appropriate on the part of the officer to go to media and share the details.”
In her report submitted to the state government, Roopa alleged that Sasikala bribed Karnataka Director General of Prisons (DGP) Satyanarayana Rao and city central jail officials to get special privileges. Roopa said that the 59-year-old leader was getting royal treatment in the women's cell where she has been lodged since February 15 to serve her 4-year jail term in a DA case.
Alleging massive irregularities and rampant corruption in the central jail on the city's southern outskirts, Roopa noted that drugs were being distributed to the inmates through various means and select prisoners were given special facilities.
Roopa, a 2000-batch IPS officer, is the first woman in the southern state to have been recently (June 23) appointed DIG of the Prisons department.
