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Police officer Roopa D, who famously exposed special favours accorded to ousted AIADMK leader VK Sasikala in prison in Bengaluru, said that bureaucrats should boldly uphold the law even if it means inviting trouble.
She was speaking at a TedX talk in Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering on 3 November. The video of the TedX talk was published on YouTube recently.
Roopa is Karnataka’s first Kannadiga woman police officer. She has been transferred 17 times in her career.
Roopa was posted as DIG Prisons in Bengaluru when she was credited for her whistle-blowing act of pointing out that Sasikala was receiving special treatment in prison.
She also said that as a woman police officer, she faced times in her career when her instructions were taken lightly by her subordinates. She recounted an earlier experience from Gadag in 2008.
She was not one to budge and sat at the police station through the day and in the night when police officers brought the guilty politician to the station. Upon investigation, it was found that the ‘subordinate’ was in constant touch with the guilty politician and was suspended.
Roopa also slammed the VVIP culture of politicians that she observed in her career. When she was DCP of Bengaluru Armed Reserve she said she found that several elected representatives including MLAs, MPs and MLCs had kept gunmen in excess of the authorised number.
She appealed to bureaucrats to take on political leaders boldly to uphold the law even if they are faced with notices. “These kind of notices cause personal discomfiture for bureaucrats. They take away personal time, energy and money if you have to fight it out in the court of law. These notices are an occupational hazard which have to be faced boldly by the bureaucrats,” adds the police officer.
(This article was first published by The News Minute and has been republished with permission)
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