Two senior bureaucrats in Karnataka, D. Roopa (IPS) and Rohini Sindhuri (IAS), who were engaged in a public slugfest after the former accused the latter of corruption and professional misconduct, causing huge embarrassment to the Basavaraj Bommai government, were both transferred without a posting on Tuesday.
Roopa, who was serving as the managing director of Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation, and Sindhuri, who held the post of the commissioner for Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments, were both shunted out of their current postings a day after the duo had met Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma to complain against each other.
The trigger for the face-off between the two officers was a photo of Sindhuri with JD(S) MLA Sa. Ra Mahesh and another senior bureaucrat Manivannan at a restaurant that had gone viral. Previously, Sindhuri and Mahesh had ugly squabbles during Sindhuri’s tenure as the Mysuru deputy commissioner in 2021, with each accusing the other of corruption. Roopa questioned the intent and purpose of Sindhuri's meeting with an elected representative and alleged that the two had struck a deal. It may be recalled that Mahesh had wanted to move a privilege motion against the officer.
The feud took an ugly turn after Roopa shared private photographs of Sindhuri on social media on Monday claiming that the latter had shared them with three male IAS officers in 2021 and 2022. Sindhuri’s husband Sudheer Reddy filed a police complaint against Roopa, while Sindhuri hit back at Roopa saying she was running a false, personal vilification campaign” against her and suggested that Roopa was suffering from “mental illness”.
“Sindhuri sharing not-so-decent personal photographs, including nudes, and holding such conversations with fellow bureaucrats violates the All India Service conduct rules,” said Roopa slamming Sindhuri.
A day prior to this, Roopa, in a Facebook post, had put a long list of alleged corruption charges against Sindhuri, including an oxygen shortage in Chamrajnagar that caused 24 deaths during the pandemic. Roopa also claimed Sindhuri, who was the CEO, had fudged the figures of toilets built in Mandya to bag the Central government award. The IPS officer suggested that Sindhuri had a role to play in the alleged suicide of IAS officer D.K. Ravi in 2015. Sindhuri should have blocked the phone number of Ravi, if he had been crossing the limit, alleged Roopa, who also cited several instances of Sindhuri having had spats with bureaucrats like Shilpa Nag, Manivannan, Harsh Gupta, and politicians including Sa Ra Mahesh, H.D. Revanna and Pratap Simha.
Roopa recalled that a preliminary inquiry into Sindhuri constructing a swimming pool in her official residence in Mysore has found her guilty of making alterations to the heritage property. Roopa mentioned the land dispute between Sindhuri’s family and popular singer Lucky Ali and a lavish family bungalow of Sindhuri coming up at Jalahalli in Bengaluru, which does not find a mention in her declared assets.
Interestingly, the state government has also transferred Roopa’s husband and IAS officer Munish Moudgil, who held the post of commissioner of Survey, Settlements and Land Records. He has been posted as principal secretary to the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms.