Protests, abuse rain on D Roopa Moudgil

Bengaluru: Within 48 hours of two senior police officers trading charges on irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara central jail that pointed to jailers giving preferential treatment to AIADMK leader Sasikala in return for cash payments, both the DGP and IGP of Prisons H. N. Sathyanarayana Rao and DIG (Prisons) D. Roopa Moudgil visited the prison separately on Saturday, with Ms. Roopa facing protests and slogan-shouting by inmates for submitting a report about the goings on inside Parappana Agrahara.

Mr. Rao visited the jail on Saturday morning and he reportedly visited the controversial room, where AIADMK leader Sasikala is lodged. Later, he also reportedly inspected the cell in which multi-crore fake stamp paper scam convict, Abdul Karim Telgi, is lodged. After giving some instructions to the staff, he left the prison but refused to speak to reporters.

Hours after he left, DIG Roopa arrived at the prison at around 3.30 pm. It is learnt that high drama prevailed when she entered the prison as a group of inmates staged a flash protest and started shouting slogans against her for submitting the report. At this point, she reportedly held DIG of the prison, Krishna Kumar, responsible for the protest and asked him why he did not take steps to prevent such protests.     

Mr. Kumar reportedly told her it was unexpected and he would look into the matter. Mrs. Roopa was also upset as Mr. Kumar stopped an inmate from talking to her, when he tried to share his grievances with the officer. 

At this juncture, she reportedly asked him to treat all the inmates equally. Before leaving the premises, she also recorded the developments in the prison diary.

Even after she left, the protests continued and more policemen were rushed to the spot. 

“A group of inmates were not willing to return to their barracks and thus senior officers spoke to them and convinced them to return after which the situation came under control,” an official said, as DCP (South East) M. B. Boralingaiah visited the spot. The inmates have reportedly split into two groups - one supporting DIG Roopa and the other supporting DIG Krishna Kumar and this had led to the protests during the visit of Mrs. Roopa. As a precautionary step, the police have deployed additional forces at the prison.