VIP treatment to Darshan: 9 prison officials suspended, 3 FIRs filed

Malini Krishnamoorthy, Director General of Police (Prisons and Correctional Services), visited the prison on Monday morning for an inspection, DH has learnt.

Bengaluru: Nine officials, including the Chief Superintendent of Prison, from the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison were suspended after a photograph of actor Darshan Thoogudeepa, currently in judicial custody for the alleged murder of Renukaswamy, smoking and chilling inside the jail premises went viral.

Three FIRs were also registered, including on Darshan, under sections of the Prisons Act and the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). 

“The officials have been suspended as lapses were discovered,” Home Minister G Parameshwara said on Monday. “They will be replaced with others with integrity. The FIRs have been registered as provisions of the Prison Act and the prison manual was violated.”

Those suspended as per the preliminary probe were V Seshumurthy, Chief Superintendent of Prison; Mallikarjuna Swamy, Superintendent of Prison; jailers Sharanabasava Aminghad and Prabhu S Khandelwal; assistant jailers LS Thippeswamy, and Srikanth Talwar; head warders Venkappa Kodti and Sampath Kumar Kadapatti; and warder Basappa Keli.

“Senior IPS officers will hold a further investigation. Once a report is received, further action will be initiated,” Parameshwara said after holding an inspection at the prison during the day. “We are also contemplating whether to move the inmates to different prisons. There were also lapses in monitoring the CCTV in the premises.”

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, too, agreed that there was a lapse. “The decision to shift Darshan and others to which prison will be taken by officials,” he told reporters in Belagavi.

The viral photograph accessed by DH showed the actor sitting on the prison veranda in a plastic chair, puffing a cigarette and holding a cup in his hand. The photograph also featured notorious history sheeter 'Wilson Garden' Naga, in a black T-shirt, Darshan’s manager Nagaraj, in a textured white t-shirt, and history sheeter Srinivas alias Kulla Seena.

Malini Krishnamoorthy, Director General of Police (Prisons and Correctional Services), said that as per preliminary information, the incident involving the actor occurred on the evening of August 22. “The FIRs have been registered for the usage of mobile phones, bringing cigarettes inside and moving items [chairs],” Krishnamoorthy told reporters. “The FIR names those who used [the items] and prison officials.”

The cases registered following a complaint by DIG (prison) M Somashekar would be individually investigated by Police Inspectors from Begur and Hulimavu and the Assistant Commissioner of Police (Electronics City). 

It was suspected that during the Central Crime Branch’s (CCB) raids at the prison on Saturday, contraband was reportedly moved from jail cells and hidden away. Crime branch officers had said that nothing of significance was recovered during the raids.

Rowdy-sheeters in Central prison

Senior officers have raised questions about why rowdies were housed in the Parappana Agrahara prison, which is a maximum security prison. Officers said that such prisons generally should house terror suspects or those accused in high-profile cases.

“The rowdies and the gangsters hold significant influence and operate a nexus. It is unclear under what criteria are these people held in a maximum security prison,” a senior police officer, on the condition of anonymity, told DH.

Recently, the city police had written to DGP Prisons and moved the court to shift ‘Wilson Garden’ Naga and his associates from the Parappana Agrahara jail to other prisons. However, a decision is yet to be made, a top police source confirmed to DH.

Bengaluru police had invoked the stringent Karnataka Control of Organised Crime Act (KCOCA) on Naga and a dozen of his associates last year.