Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Mar 7: Embattled former director general of police (prisons), H N Sathyanarayana Rao, who has been accused of providing VVIP facilities to Sasikala in the central prison at Parappana Agrahara for a price, has approached the state high court against the probe ordered agains him. He has not only questioned the state government's action in registering first information report (FIR) against him, but also demanded for quashing of the FIR.

The chief secretary of the government had asked Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) to investigate the inquiry report submitted by retired IAS officer, Vinay Kumar, about the allegation. Accordingly, the ACB had registered FIR against the retired DGP and begun investigation. Sathyanarayana Rao has approached the high court against this measure.

H N Sathyanarayana Rao

The single judge bench presided over by Justice Vineet Kothari which took over the petition on Tuesday, adjourned hearing in the case by a week, duly asking the advocate for Rao to submit a copy of the FIR to the high court.

The then deputy inspector general of prisons, D Roopa, had accused Sathyanarayana Rao of providing special facilities to Sasikala against a bribe of two crore rupees. The government had appointed retired IAS officer, Vinay Kumar, to investigate this allegation. Vinay Kumar had completed his probe and filed report with the chief secretary. The chief secretary had accepted the report on February 26 this year and asked ACB to investigate the report. The ACB police had registered FIR on March 3.

Rao says that he had not accepted any bribe to provide facilities to Sasikala in the prison and that Roopa had failed to provide proof and evidences in support of her allegations. Although Vinay Kumar clearly mentioned about these inadequacies, the chief secretary, instead of closing the case, has erred in directing ACB to complete investigation in three months. As the chief secretary has exceeded her powers in passing this order, it should be quashed, he has been arguing.

Advocate for Rao argued that Sasikala had requested for class one special facility since February 2017 and that the request had been declined as per prison rules. "After a month, personal assistant to the chief minister, Venkatesh, called my client to meet him at the Karnataka Power Corporation guest house. During this meeting, he asked Rao to provide a single bed, cot, and pillow to Sasikala. As the government has the right to provide these facilities, my client obeyed the instructions," he argued.