Jailed VK Sasikala visited Hosur MLA's house, claims D Roopa in report submitted to ACB

Bengaluru: Karnataka Deputy Inspector General of Police D Roopa, in a report to the ACB has claimed that she had reliable information on jailed AIADMK leader VK Sasikala visiting a house belonging to Hosur MLA, near the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru. “There is a reliable information that she (Sasikala) sometimes goes to a house near the central jail that belongs to Hosur MLA. “This may be further ascertained by footages of CCTV cameras placed at the entrance of the jail and the cameras placed in between gate 1 and gate 2 of the jail,” Roopa said in her report submitted to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB). [caption id=“attachment_3964809” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of VK Sasikala. PTI[/caption] The DIG said she had submitted videos exposing special treatment given to Sasikala in the prison. “In one video Sasikala is attired in a cotton nightie. In other two videos, she is in a mud-color churidar and Ilavarasi in an orange/red saree. “Of the four video clippings, in one of the videos, which is 25 seconds, she is purportedly seen entering the jail from outside, wherein she is holding bags which look like shopping bags,” Roopa said. Sasikala is lodged in the jail ever since her conviction in February in a disproportionate assets case along with her two relatives VN Sudhakaran and Ilavarasi. They are all serving a four-year jail term. Another video showed three male prison warders in uniform guarding the gate and also a male convict. In female-barracks, there are no men guarding the barracks, the video suggests. Roopa, on 13 July, had alleged that preferential treatment was being given to Sasikala in the prison, amid allegations of payment of Rs 2 crore to an official for it, prompting the Karnataka government to order a probe. She had leveled the charges in a report to her superior, DGP (Prisons) HS Sathyanarayana Rao. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced a “high-level probe” into the allegations as the two senior officers engaged in a bitter public spat. Both were subsequently shifted. Roopa alleged that Sasikala has ‘managed’ to live the life of a Class 1 prisoner against the court order. In her report, she also alleged that even Karim Lala Telgi, who has been convicted in a fake stamp-paper scam, had been given special treatment by prison officials.