Bengaluru: Home Secretary Roopa says complaint against her by additional CP false, motivated

Bengaluru: A day after Additional Commissioner of Police (Administration), Hemant Nimbalkar, had alleged that someone impersonated the Home Secretary and tried to gain access to the classified information pertaining to the tender for Rs 619-crore Safe City Project under the Nirbhaya Fund, IG rank officer and Home Secretary D. Roopa clarified that the complaint against her was false and motivated.

In her explanation to Chief Secretary T.M. Vijay Bhaskar, Roopa stated that while studying the Nirbhaya project in the Home Department, she found serious irregularities in the tender.

"Calling herself a whistleblower in the case, Roopa said, "Bharat Electronics Limited (BEL) had complained to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) that the tender favoured a particular vendor. I blew whistle bringing this to the notice of the chief secretary. This led to the chief secretary calling me for the next Safe City Project meeting. That the tender document was biased is proved by the fact that it has been cancelled."

"In context of this file and irregularities in drafting of tender by Ernst & Young (E&Y), I, in my capacity as home secretary spoke to E&Y to get more facts to know why such biased tender was drafted by them. The complaint against my actions appears to have been made at the behest of those benefiting from the biased and unfair tender. Each of my actions has been to safeguard public interest and public money in the bona fide discharge of my duties as a public servant. I myself being home secretary the complaint alleging impersonation is false and motivated," Roopa added.

In his December 7 letter, Nimbalkar said that the Request For Proposal (RFP) for selection of service provider for design, implementation and maintenance of Bengaluru Safe City project was under process.

The letter stated that on December 2, Nimbalkar had a meeting with Akshay Singhal, the management consultant for the project. Singhal sought to know about the email communication he had with Bengaluru police Commissioner on November 9 and asked the developments related to it.

"The email communication attached herewith is self-explanatory and amounts to clear impersonation as Home Secretary to the Government of Karnataka for getting access to classified information with respect to the RFP in preparation for Safe City Project worth Rs 619 crore approx before publication of tender for wrongful gains without any lawful authority and locus standi," Nimbalkar said in his letter.

He submitted that it also amounted to illegal interference in the tender process initiated by the Karnataka government by an unauthorised person.

It may be recalled that the CBI had charge-sheeted Nimbalkar along with another IPS officer in the multi-crore IMA ponzi scheme fraud for allegedly covering it up and shielding the scheme operators.

The Home Ministry, in collaboration with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, is implementing the project under the Nirbhaya scheme to prevent and curb crimes against women and girls in public places.

The scheme aims at providing safer urban infrastructure and efficient access to law enforcement agencies.