Sasikala holds regular durbar in jail, Roopa says in report

DHNS
July 16, 2017

Bengaluru, Jul 16: V K Sasikala, the convicted Tamil Nadu politician, enjoys the services of a cook inside her cell on the first floor, sources said, quoting a report submitted by DIG (Prisons) D Roopa.Sasikala

The jail staff have also given her a special room with a table and chair. Four chairs for visitors facilitate regular “office-like” meetings with Sasikala, the report purportedly says.

Sasikala’s “office” is located next to the office of a female jail superintendent in charge of women’s barracks. Roopa learnt about the arrangement from a staffer, after which she inspected the spot and prepared the report which she later submitted to the state police chief Rupak Kumar Dutta, the Home Secretary, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) and her immediate boss, the DGP (Prisons) H S Sathyanarayana Rao.

Her enquiries revealed that prison staff let in more visitors than allowed in the manual. Rules about duration and frequency of visits were also violated. Other VIP prisoners have been provided similar facilities.

The report says two senior officials, attached to the Bengaluru and Belagavi prisons, had prodded inmates into protesting against her after she exposed jail irregularities. She has sought stringent action against them.

Footage vanished?

Roopa suspects systematic efforts to destroy evidence of irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara jail.

Her second report purportedly says CCTV installed at the barracks had been deliberately rendered dysfunctional. The CCTV cameras do not cover visitor rooms with cameras 7 and 8 remaining broken, a source quoted her report as saying. A significant amount of ‘select’ footage has also been deleted from the DVR at the headquarters of the Prisons Department.

The prison authorities have deleted crucial footage that could have proved her charges. She had used a video camera from the department to record the statements of inmates on June 28 and July 10, and entered the details in the prison dairy, but much of it has vanished, the report indicates.

Roopa had lunch with the inmates and even shared her phone number with them when she came to know of irregularities inside the prison. The report says she had asked a jail employee to send her the footage.

When nothing came, an enraged Roopa questioned the staffer, who said her seniors had prevented them from handing over the footage to her. When she persisted, she was given a pen drive with nothing significant.

The report purportedly says Roopa then came to know the footage had been deleted at the behest of her seniors.

Footage covering the barracks and visitor areas have been erased, the report complains.

Comments

wellwisher
 - 
Monday, 17 Jul 2017

Mr Shettar , state chief minister comments his just to understand our blind fold bjp criminal mind leaders that a hindu never play communal mind politics and game for his personal sake. He always work for his mother lands development and for citizens better future. There is no criminal game like bjp leaders.

Please try to understand the meaning i/o of teasing.

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News Network
April 4,2020

Bagalkot, April 4: A COVID-19 positive patient passed away in Karnataka's Bagalkot on Friday, taking the total number of deaths in the state to four, informed the Deputy Commissioner of Bagalkot.

The total number of coronavirus cases in the country now stands at 2650 including 184 people who have been discharged or cured or migrated, and 68 deaths, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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News Network
June 8,2020

Mangaluru, Jun 8: Forum Fiza Mall in Mangaluru on Monday reopened for public after Ministry of Home Affairs allowed the reopening of shopping malls from June 8 with certain precautionary measures amid COVID-19 pandemic.

People visited the mall wearing masks and maintaining social distancing.

Earlier, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had said that religious places and places of worship for public, hotels, restaurants and other hospitality services along with shopping malls will be permitted to open from June 8.

However, these facilities will not be able to resume operations inside containment zones designated by authorities in states, said a government notification.

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News Network
May 30,2020

Dubai, May 30: Taking advantage of Vande Bharat Mission, a notorious NRI conman has fled to India through a repatriation flight after duping several businessmen in United Arab Emirates and stealing goods worth nearly six million dirhams.

Yogesh Ashok Yariava, 36, owner of the fraudulent Royal Luck Foodstuff Trading and prime suspect in the audacious scam took a flight to Hyderabad from Abu Dhabi on May 11 with around 170 repatriates.

His mandatory two-week quarantine period would have ended on May 25, but for his 40 odd victims a protracted battle for justice has just begun.

Last Wednesday many of them trooped down to the Indian Consulate office in Dubai in the hope of getting an audience with Consul General Vipul. The following day they went to Bur Dubai police station clutching dud bank cheques.

In a replay of the familiar trading scam, conmen representing Royal Luck Foodstuff approached unsuspecting traders and made bulk purchases against post-dated cheques.

They bought anything they could get their hands on: Facemasks, hand sanisters and medical gloves worth nearly half a million dirhams from Skydent Medical Equipment, Raheeq Laboratories and GSA Star; rice and nuts (Dh393,000) from Al Baraka Foods; tuna, pistachios and saffron (Dh300,725) from Yes Buy General Trading; French fries and mozzarella cheese (Dh229,000) from Mehdu General Trading; frozen Indian beef (Dh207,000) from Al Ahbab General Trading and halwa and tahina (Dh52812) from Emirates Sesame Factory. It’s a long list and it keeps getting longer as more victims come forward.

When their post-dated cheques started bouncing, the traders rushed to Royal Luck’s Opal Tower office in Business Bay. But it was too late. They had shut down and all their 18 staffers had disappeared. Visits to their warehouses also drew a blank.

“Calls made to the company’s sweet-talking purchase managers who visited us days earlier carrying fancy business cards remained unanswered,” said Chandrasekaran Ganesan of Ajman-based Skydent Medical Equipment which supplied protective face masks worth Dh175,875.

Another business owner, Anand Asar said he visited Royal Luck’s office after his cheque of Dh79,552 returned marked insufficient funds. “The security guard at the building told us their staff was last seen on May 17,” said Asar who has since lodged a police complaint.

“I am devastated. I don’t know how I will recover my losses,” said another trader.

Victims reckon the ill-gotten goods have been sold to third parties at dirt cheap prices.

“They have got millions of dirhams worth of goods against worthless pieces of paper. The scammers would rack up huge profits even if they sell our stuff for one tenth their price,” said another trader who pegged his losses at Dh200,000.

The scam comes close on the heels a Dh4 million fruit loot in which 810 tonnes of fruits shipped by Indian exporters to OPC Foodstuff Trading in Deira, Dubai were similarly stolen last month.

Legal adviser Salam Pappinisseri from Sharjah based United Advocates that represents five firms which have collectively lost over Dh550,000 said they are weighing legal action against the prime suspect Yogesh Ashok Variava in both India and the UAE.

“Yogesh, originally from Mumbai, absconded from the UAE with large amounts of money on an emergency evacuation flight. It’s strange that the fraudster got a seat in the flight which was meant to bring stranded Indian citizens who had registered with the Indian embassy and consulate requesting repatriation on urgent grounds,” said Pappinisseri.

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