Namma Bengaluru Foundation denies offering award to IPS officer Roopa

Days after IPS officer D Roopa said she has declined an award by a city-based foundation, the latter today said it was never offered to her.

"She was never offered this award and so there is no case of her turning it down," the Namma Bengaluru Foundation (NBF), headed by BJP Rajya Sabha MP Rajeev Chandrasekhar, said in a statement here.

The NBF confers awards to Bengaluru-based NGOs and others and Roopa, who had exposed alleged preferential treatment to jailed AIADMK leader V K Sasikala in the central prison here last year, was nominated under the Government Official of the Year category.

The foundation sought to know how Roopa came to know the winner's name even before it was announced. However, Roopa in a letter, rebutted saying she knew the results of award. "To say anything contrary now by them amounts to further losing their credibility. I declined the award much before. It would be even more embarrassing had I received it and then returned," she said.

The foundation alleged there were multiple communication by the nominee (Roopa) to the jury, NBF team and trustees 'lobbying' for the award. It said, if this conduct of "lies" continued, it will pursue legal measures to protect "the hard-earned reputation and integrity of the awards."

Roopa had last week said her conscience did not permit her to accept the award, which comes with a big cash reward. "Every government servant is expected to maintain neutrality and equidistance from all quasi-political bodies and associations that have even the bare minimum political overtone.

Only then a public servant can maintain a clean and fair image in the eyes of the public," she had said in a letter. During her stint as DIG Prisons in July last year, Roopa had brought to light the alleged special treatment given to Sasiakala and also said there was "a talk" that Rs two crore had been paid as bribe to jail officials in this regard. Roopa had levelled the charges in a report to her superior, the then DGP (Prisons) H S Sathyanarayana Rao while mentioning that there allegations against him too.