DIG Roopa transfer: Commonest way of getting rid of inconvenient officers

D Roopa was transferred after she alleged that jail admin provided Sasikala with special facilities

These are words that strike terror in the heart of a bureaucrat. “You have been transferred” can mean a range of misdemeanours — you don’t understand your job; you haven’t carried it out properly; you have spoken out of turn; you can’t get along with your colleagues….

D Roopa, Karnataka’s Deputy Inspector General (Prisons), was transferred out of the job within days of taking over on June 21, after she alleged irregularities at Bengaluru’s Parappana Agrahara Central Prison, where V K Sasikala, an associate of late Tamil Nadu chief minister Jayalalithaa, is lodged, convicted of corruption. In her report, Roopa