Cyber fraud victim, son's shady biz dealings: A look at former DG&IGP's chequered career

Bengaluru: Om Prakash, the 68-year-old former DG&IGP allegedly murdered by his wife in Bengaluru on Sunday, had a chequered and often controversial career as a Karnataka-cadre IPS officer.

Just months after being appointed the Director General and Inspector General of Police (DG&IGP) on February 28, 2015, he made headlines when he became one of the first high-profile victims of cyber fraud.

The cyber con, first reported by DH, saw him lose Rs 10,000. A fraudster, posing as an ICICI Bank employee, convinced him to share his credit card details under the pretext of renewal.

Though police later arrested the accused in Delhi, the incident embarrassed the state's top cop.

At the time, Om Prakash told DH, “Arresting the conman and recovering my money isn’t important. Such men should be brought to book.”

He later claimed he had "deliberately" lost the money in an effort to help track down the fraudster and his network.

In 2016, controversy struck again when Om Prakash's son, Karthikesh Omprakash, came under scrutiny over his business ties with a relative of N Narasimha Murthy, a police clerk arrested in the Lokayukta corruption scam.

Documents reviewed by DH had showed that Karthikesh was a business partner of Murthy's brother-in-law Ashwath in a firm called Magadi Quarry and Crusher. The company was allotted five acres of gomala land in Ramanagara district to set up a quarrying and crusher unit.

Despite objections from local villagers, authorities relaxed certain conditions by declaring the area a safe zone and granted clearances in just one day.

On the day Om Prakash took charge as DG&IGP, the Loksatta Party had complained to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah that he had prima facie misused his position to get clearances for his son's business.

Om Prakash denied the allegations and insisted that it was his son's private business matter.

Born at Piparsi village in Bihar's Champaran district in January 1957, Om Prakash held a master's degree in geology and joined the Indian Police Service (IPS) in 1981.

In the early years of his career, he served as the superintendent of police (SP) in Shivamogga and Kalaburagi. When senior Congress Mallikarjun Kharge was the transport minister from 2004 to 2006, he served as the commissioner for transport and road safety.

His appointment as DG&IGP was itself contentious. It was alleged that the state government had bypassed the seniority rule to promote him. Sushant Mahapatra, a 1979-batch IPS officer, unsuccessfully challenged his appointment in court.

Om Prakash retired on superannuation in January 2017.