Sasikala jail special treatment case: ACB probe against 2 officials

The Karnataka government has ordered a probe by the Anti-Corruption Bureau against two senior prison officials here in connection with alleged preferential treatment accorded to deposed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala last year, a senior police official said today.
"The government has ordered ACB inquiry, under the Prevention of Corruption Act, against two senior officials for extending special treatment to Sasikala in the Parapanna Agrahara Central Jail," IGP (Home Guard) D Roopa, who was earlier DIG Prisons, told PTI.
During her stint as DIG Prisons in July last year, Roopa had brought to light the alleged special treatment given to Sasikala and also said there was "a talk" that Rs 2 crore had been paid as bribe to the officials in this regard.

Roopa had levelled the charges in a report to her superior, the then DGP (Prisons) H S Sathyanarayana Rao, while mentioning that there allegations against him too.
Sasikala, a close aide of late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalaalitha, is serving a four-year sentence in the prison here in a disproportionate assets case.
The ACB had been asked to submit its report in three months, said Roopa, who was transferred from the DIG Prisons post at the height of the controversy created by her report.

The decision was taken after the Vinay Kumar Committee, which was set up to probe the alleged preferential treatment to Sasikala, submitted its report to the government.

Roopa said the ACB should look into every angle of the case.
Besides probing bribery charges against top officials, it should also look into the video footage in which Sasikala and her relative Ilavarasi were purportedly seen entering the jail in plain clothes and not in the prison uniform, she added.
The CCTV footage had surfaced in the media last August purportedly showing Sasikala entering the jail, wearing clothes that didn't appear to be prison uniform.
The footage was submitted by Roopa on August 19 as part of her statement to the ACB then in support of her allegations that Sasikala was being given preferential treatment in the prison. The ACB had conducted a probe earlier after she submitted the report.

Roopa also said prior to the government ordering ACB probe into the matter, she had filed an application under the RTI Act to know the status of her report, but was'astonished' to learn that the agency had closed the case.
"The ACB had closed the case as it did not find anything cognisable in my report, but I am happy that the government has ordered ACB probe based on Vinay Kumar Committee recommendations," she said.
In her report submitted after a visit to the prison last year, Roopa had said a special kitchen was functioning for Sasikala in violation of rules.

Taking exception to Roopa going to the media on her charges, the state government had then issued her a notice asking her to explain her conduct and later transferred her from the post.