IPS officer, who exposed prison favours to Sasikala, declines award

Bengaluru : Karnataka's woman Indian Police Service (IPS) officer D. Roopa Moudgil, the whistleblower who exposed prison favours to jailed sidelined AIADMK leader V.K. Sasikala, declined to accept an award recognising her work for the "heavy" cash reward it came with.

"I did not accept the Namma Bengaluru Award by the Namma Bengaluru Foundation on Sunday as it came with a heavy cash reward of Rs 2 lakh," Moudgil, who is the Inspector General of Police, Home Guards and Civil Defence, told IANS here.

Founded in 2009, the Foundation has been working on various citizen issues in the city, giving out annual awards for citizens and government officials for their work. The ninth edition of the awards were given out on Sunday.

In a letter to the private foundation, which is founded and supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party's Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Moudgil said as a government servant, she was expected to maintain neutrality and distance from "quasi-political" bodies.

Chandrasekhar, who was earlier an Independent, recently got re-elected as a BJP candidate.

"With the Foundation fighting against the government on various civic issues in courts, it is the government servants who represent the state in the court. Hence, I felt it was inappropriate for me to receive the award as a government servant," she said.

Moudgil, through a report last year, exposed the favours and special treatment given to Sasikala in Bengaluru Central Jail, where she is currently serving a four-year sentence since February last year after the Supreme Court upheld her conviction in a corruption case by a trial court here in September 2015.

Responding to Moudgil's letter, the Foundation called it "inappropriate".

"We are saddened and shocked at the inappropriate conduct of one of the nominees to the government official category of the awards," it said in a statement, alleging that she had "indulged in relentless lobbying" for the award, and termed her conduct "immature and malicious for not making it to the final winner".

Deputy Conservator of Forests, Bengaluru, Dipika Bajpai was given the award under the government official category on Sunday.

Moudgil, in a reply to the statement, continued to maintain that she kept her post's dignity, neutrality and fairness by declining to be part of the event.