Days after Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hinted at action against the whistleblower officer, the Karnataka government today ordered the transfer of DIG (Prisons) D Roopa, who alleged corrupt activities in Bengaluru jail and accused AIADMK General Secretary and convict VK Sasikala Natarajan of bribing top prison officials for undue favours.

Former Karnataka chief minister BS Yeddyurappa said that by transferring DIG Roopa, incumbent Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has sent out a clear message that there is no space for honest officers in his rule.

Here is a quick look at how other honest officers have been shunted out:

Shreshtha Thakur, the woman police officer of Syana circle in district Bulandshahar, who stood up against local BJP leaders and sent five of them to jail for creating obstacles in discharging government duties, was transferred to Bahraich on July 1,  2017.

Thakur and her team were checking vehicles in Syana area on June 22, 2017 when she stopped a person driving a motorcycle without wearing a helmet and slapped a fine of Rs 200 on him. The man introduced himself as BJP leader Pramod Kumar – his wife is a member of jila panchayat in Bulandshahar. An altercation took place between Kumar and Thakur and the former soon telephoned BJP leaders, who arrived there and objected to the action of police.

On July 1 the Uttar Pradesh police transferred DSP Shrestha Thakur, less than a fortnight after a video of her chiding local BJP leaders went viral on social media. In the video, she is seen confronting BJP city president Mukesh Bhardwaj and other party workers. A verbal spat broke out between them after the police fined BJP worker Pramod Kumar for riding a motorcycle “without any documents, number plate and helmet.”

Reflecting on her transfer, Thakur posted a brief message on her Facebook account. “Got transfer to Bahraich, it’s Nepal border, don’t worry my friends I am happy. I accept it as a reward for my good work. u all are invited to bahraich(sic),” she wrote, along with an Urdu couplet: “Jahan bhi jayega roshni lutayega, kisi charagh ka apna makan nahi hota (A lamp does not have a house. It spreads light wherever it goes).”

Luv Kumar (UP)

Kumar had booked members of the ruling BJP including local MP Raghav Lakhanpal, for allegedly taking out an illegal procession through a communally sensitive area which led to clashes in Saharanpur in April 2017. Lakhanpal allegedly instigated a mob of BJP workers to attack the SSP’s house and to engage in rioting and arson of public and private properties in Saharanpur.

In the aftermath of the communal clash in Saharanpur, Kumar had arrested more than two dozen people including leaders of the BJP and several members of the minority community who engaged in pelting stones on the BJP procession. The arrests of senior BJP leaders like Virendar Pundir, who was allegedly part of the rioting mob, had led to anger among local party leaders and the demand for action against the police.

On April 27, 2017, Luv Kumar, was transferred to Noida, as the new SSP of Gautam Budh Nagar. 

Officers who filed Sasikala case shunted

March 2017: Weeks after Edappadi K Palaniswami took over as chief minister, the state home department ordered the transfer of inspector general of police, north zone, N K Senthamarai Kannan, and superintendent of police, Kanchipuram, J Mutharasi, who played a key role in registering a case against AIADMK general secretary VK Sasikala when she was with MLAs backing her at Golden Bay Resorts at Koovathur on East Coast Resort. The

police officers were incharge of supervising a team which was posted for guard duty at the resort which is under their jurisdiction. They have not been given any postings. 

CRPF IG Rajnish Rai, who called Assam encounter fake, shunted

CRPF IG Rajnish Rai, who called for a probe in what he alleged was a fake encounter – by a joint team of Army, CRPF, SSB and state police in Assam in March this year – that killed two men, has been transferred out of the North East with immediate effect. Rai was asked to join the Counter Insurgency and Anti Terrorism (CIAT) School of the CRPF at Chittoor in Andhra Pradesh. Rai was posted at Shillong as IG, North East Sector with the CRPF. The development comes even as the Home Ministry decided to probe his allegations.

Sangeeta Rani Kalia (Haryana)

Sangeeta Rani Kalia, SP of Fatehabad district, was transferred  as Commandant 4th IRB on November 28, 2015 at Manesar after she refused to leave a public grievance meeting on being asked to “get out” by the Haryana health minister Anil Vij who was irked with her response to a query on illicit liquor trade in the area. Vij subsequently stormed out of the District Grievances and Public Relations Committee in Fatehabad. She was shunted out by

BJP government, a day after she was allegedly involved in a spat with Vij.

Durga Shakti Nagpal (UP)

Durga Shakti Nagpal, a 2009-batch IAS officer, decided to take on the might of Noida’s illegal sand mining mafia. Between February and July in 2013, in collaboration with the Noida Police, the 28-year-old sub-divisional magistrate of Greater Noida’s Gautam Budh Nagar, registered 66 FIRs, arrested 104 people and seized 81 vehicles engaged in illegal mining in her district. She assembled flying squads of policemen who would conduct raids anytime between 11 pm and 4 in the morning.  She carried on undeterred until the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) government could take it no longer.

In a swift move on July 27, it ordered her suspension, allegedy for inciting communal tension by breaking down the boundary wall of a mosque in Kadalpur, Noida, during Ramzan. There was menace in the taped voice of senior SP leader Narender Bhati, who bragged on August 2 that he managed to get her suspended in 41 minutes.