Did officials secretly shift two prisoners to Belagavi ahead of probe into jail scam?
- Two inmates have been reportedly shifted to Belagavi in the intervening night of Sunday
- Wife of one of the inmates told a news channel that jail chief superintendent Krishna Kumar was behind this
- Investigation team led by retired officer Vinay Kumar will launch their probe from July 17
FollowAhead of the fact-finding committee's visit to the Central prisons at Parappana Agrahara to investigate rampant irregularities claimed by DIG Roopa, two prison inmates - suspected to have 'leaked' information to Roopa - have been quietly moved to Hindalga jail in Belagavi in the dead of night, it is reported.
Wife of Ramamurthy, who is serving life imprisonment at the Central prisons - on Sunday - told a news channel that she had been told that her husband has been allegedly "punished" by sending him to Belagavi jail. It is alleged that he was being blamed for being a whistleblower in this case.
Ramamurthy's wife squarely blamed prisons chief superintendent Krishna Kumar for this. She told a news channel that on Saturday, Krishna Kumar allegedly beat up her husband and accused him of taking sides with DIG Roopa - who exposed irregularities in the Central prisons. Another prisoner Anantha Murthy also met with the same treatment by Krishna Kumar. The officer allegedly tried to shift them to isolation wards but had to change after other inmates literally gheraoed him. However, now Rama Murthy's wife alleged that he had been secretly shifted to Hindalga jail in Belagavi for no fault of his.
On Saturday, women inmates targeted Roopa when she visited the hospital and women's barrack forcing the prison authorities to call in additional policemen to bring the situation under control, reports Bangalore Mirror. A verbal war broke out between DIG Roopa and jail superintendent Krishna Kumar in front of the inmates exposing the fact that all was not well between the officials, it is reported.
Meanwhile, DGP Satyanarayana Rao's surprise visit to the Central prisons even before the fact-finding committee reached there has raised a lot of suspicions. For, DIG Roopa had levelled serious allegations of bribery against Rao accusing him of extending special privileges to AIADMK leader Sasikala and stamp paper scam kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi. In her second report, she had also raised questions about the missing footage of CCTV recordings of Sasikala's barrack. She raised concerns about possibilities of "tampering with evidence" by the officers. In this backdrop, the DGP making a surprise visit and reportedly transferring inmates to Belagavi are being seen as an attempt to cover-up.
