D Roopa was never offered award: B'luru foundation slams K'taka top cop

Bengaluru: The Indian Police Service (IPS) officer from Karnataka, D Roopa, who shot into the limelight for uncovering the alleged special privileges enjoyed by VK Sasikala in a Bengaluru jail, has landed into a fresh controversy. This one is over an award the "Namma Bengaluru Award" that she refused to accept because it comes with a high cash reward.

But "she was never offered this award and so, there was no case of her turning it down," Namma Bengaluru Foundation shot back on Tuesday. The Namma Bengaluru Foundation also alleged relentless lobbying for the award by Roopa, "There were multiple communication by this nominee to lobby both to jury, NBF team and trustees." The non-profit organisation called the officer's announcement that she wasn't going to accept the award "immature malicious conduct by a nominee who did not make it to the final winner".

"Never in the long history of recognising the heroes of our city by a jury of respected Bengalureans have we experienced this relentless lobbying for the award, then followed by this immature malicious conduct by a nominee who did not make it to the final winner," the statement by the NGO read. D Roopa is currently the Inspector General of Police (Home Guard and Civil Defence, Bengaluru). D Roopa's handwritten letter to the organisers declining the award had earlier been released by news agency ANI. In this, she had pointed out that she could not accept the award because it carried a heavy cash award "and my conscience does not permit me for this".

She had also underlined that government officials had to "maintain equidistance from all quasi-political bodies and associations that have the bare minimum political overtone". The reference to the "political overtones" of the award was seen to be a reference to its links to Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the BJP lawmaker who founded the organisation and continues to support it. D Roopa had followed it up with a tweet on Tuesday, underlining why Namma Bengaluru Award wasn't good for government servants. Because it came with a monetary component and was involved in activities which may prove embarrassing for the government.

The foundation, she tweeted, had dragged the government to court in several cases including the ones relating to the now-scrapped steel flyover linking the city to the international airport. In a statement, Namma Bengaluru Foundation said D Roopa had never spoken about these views as long as she was a nominee. "Her views have surfaced only after the jury had decided the final winner," the statement said, dismissing her public stand as "dramatics" that make her disappointment at not getting the award "obvious".