Bengaluru: In a possible first, two senior Karnataka government officials are likely to confront each other in court over charges of defamation as both have refused to back down and settle the matter amicably.
The duo in question is IPS officer D. Roopa Moudgil, Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Internal Security, and IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri, both of whom have been known as “lady Singhams” for locking horns with the high-and-mighty political class.
The two women even had a spat on social media in February 2023, and Sindhuri has asked Moudgil for a public apology regarding her allegations, which the latter has declined. Moudgil had shared on her Facebook page seven photos of Sindhuri, alleging that the latter had shared them with male IAS officers in 2021 and 2022, and listed other charges against Sindhuri as well.
On Thursday, a three-judge bench of the Supreme Court, led by Justice Abhay S. Oka, allowed Moudgil to withdraw her plea in which she sought quashing of a criminal defamation case slapped against her by Sindhuri in March last year at a Bengaluru court, according to Bar and Bench.
“This is not a face-off,” said one person directly aware of the developments, requesting anonymity. “One is an accused in a criminal case and the other is a petitioner.”
In February last year, bureaucratic circles and the then Basavaraj Bommai-led BJP government in Karnataka were taken by surprise when the covert war between the two women went public. On Facebook, Moudgil levelled at least 19 allegations against Sindhuri, including that of sending inappropriate pictures to at least three male officers.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), too, pulled up the Bommai government for not being able to contain the tensions between the two state government officials.
Sindhuri thereafter slapped Moudgil with a legal notice, charging her with criminal defamation, sought Rs 1 crore in damages and an unconditional apology.
“Roopa IPS has been driving (a) false, personal vilification campaign against me which is her standard modus operandi,” Sindhuri stated to the media on 19 February last year.
“The photos are screenshots and picked from social media posts/WhatsApp status which are being used to scandalise me. She can share the names of people she is alleging I have sent these pictures to and the same can be verified,” her statement added.
Several complaints and counter complaints by the two parties have since been heard by the Karnataka chief secretary, lower courts, the high court and even the Supreme Court.
ThePrint reached Sindhuri and Moudgil via calls with queries on the matter. This report will be updated if and when responses are received.
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Who is Rohini Sindhuri?
The 2009-batch officer from Karnataka has been in the news periodically since the 2015 death of another IAS officer, D.K. Ravi.
Moudgil in her list of allegations against Sindhuri has insinuated that the IAS officer had a role in Ravi’s alleged death by suicide as the last message from him was to Sindhuri. Her other allegations pertain to undeclared property, illegal construction of a swimming pool at Sindhuri’s official residence while she was the Mysuru deputy commissioner (DC), and corruption, among others.
Sindhuri’s every move, over the years, has drawn interest and attention.
In 2021, Shilpa Nag, then Mysuru city corporation commissioner, had stated in the media that it was “suffocating” and “humiliating” to work with Sindhuri, and had threatened to resign.
At the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic in May 2021, 23 people died in a government hospital in Chamarajanagar, allegedly due to shortage of oxygen. Then DC of Chamarajanagara M.R. Ravi had accused his Mysuru counterpart, Sindhuri, of deliberately delaying supply of oxygen to the neighbouring district.
Several political leaders piled on Sindhuri at the time, including then Janata Dal (Secular) MLA S.R. Mahesh.
He went public against Sindhuri, remarking in July 2021 that Mysuru district needed “model officers” and not “models”.
The then JD(S) MLA and the IAS official traded charges of corruption, with the former even slapping a Rs 1 crore defamation suit against the latter.
The row with Moudgil was triggered in 2021 by a picture of Mahesh and Sindhuri talking in a coffee shop with another senior IAS official, who was purportedly mediating a truce between them. The photo went viral on social media, with Moudgil commenting on it.
In 2018, Sindhuri successfully challenged her premature transfer as DC of Hassan. She has been transferred multiple times by the government, with the moves touted as “punishment” for not being amenable to the powers that be.
Sindhuri’s realtor husband, Sudhir Reddy, has also been accused of encroachment of land belonging to singer-songwriter Lucky Ali in Bengaluru.
All these allegations are among those listed by Moudgil.
Who is Roopa Moudgil?
A 2000-batch IPS officer, Moudgil had made headlines in 2004 when she arrested former MP Chief Minister Uma Bharati for violating orders and hoisting the tricolour at Hubballi’s Idgah maidan.
Moudgil is an Arts graduate from A.V.K. College for women in Davanagere. She was also crowned Miss Davanagere twice and cracked the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) exam in her first attempt, becoming the first woman IPS official from Karnataka.
Like Sindhuri, Moudgil has endured several transfers during her career for taking on or not bowing to political pressure.
In July 2017, Moudgil as Deputy Inspector General of Police (Prisons) took on her own superiors to highlight widespread corruption and alleged mismanagement in Bengaluru central jail, including preferential treatment given to AIADMK’s V.K. Sasikala.
Days after her allegations made waves, Moudgil and her superior—director general of police (prisons) H.N. Sathyanarayana Rao—were transferred out of the prisons department.
Moudgil had alleged that Sasikala paid Rs 2 crore for preferential treatment, including a private kitchen, at Parappana Agrahara-Bengaluru Central Jail.
She had also submitted an internal report to Rao which highlighted irregularities such as drug abuse, unregulated movement of prisoners, and threats and assault on medical staff by prisoners for favourable reports. The report mentioned preferential treatment to fake stamp paper kingpin Abdul Karim Telgi as well.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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