Jayalalithaa's prison cell 'custodian' has been holding maximum number of top state political leaders and VVIPs

Bengaluru: The Additional Director General of Police and Inspector General of Prisons K.V. Gagandeep, who is overseeing the stay and security arrangements of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalitha's in the Central Prison at Parapanna Agrahara, Bengaluru, has interestingly been the judicial 'custodian' of maximum number of top State political leaders and VVIPs, who were arrested and remanded in judicial custody in the Bengaluru Central prison.

Mr. Gagandeep on September 9 completed three years as the head of the Prisons Department in Karnataka.

Within days of Mr. Gagandeep being posted as the IG Prisons, former chief minister B.S. Yedyurappa along with his former cabinet colleague Es En Krissnaiah Setty was indicted and arrested in a land denotification scam.

Before him, Mr. Yedyurappa's close aide and former tourism minister Janardhan Reddy was indicted and arrested in the illegal mining scam by the Criminal Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He too was lodged in the Central Prison.

Besides the political bigwigs many retired and serving All India Services officers were arrested in the illegal mining scam and were sent to the Central Prison in the last three years.

In October 2011, former Karnataka Information Commissioner H. N. Krishna was arrested on charges of irregularities and malpractice in the selection of gazetted probationers during his tenure as Chairman of the State Public Service Commission during 1998-2004.

He too was in judicial remand at Parapanna Agrhara.

Even in his earlier avatar as the Hubli Commissioner in 2004, Mr. Gagandeep on court orders had executed the arrest warrant of then Madhya Pradesh chief minister and the present Union Minister Uma Bharati in an old case of 1994 for hosting the Tricolour at a disputed site in Hubli.