Parappana Agrahara's jailer: Karnataka prisons DIG M. Somashekhar accused of exploiting convict's wife

BENGALURU — A senior Karnataka prison officer has been accused of sexually exploiting the wife of a convict in exchange for her husband's parole and release, in a case that has shaken the state's prison department. The officer, M. Somashekhar, is the Deputy Inspector-General (DIG) of Prisons. At the time of the alleged acts he was the Chief Superintendent of the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison in Bengaluru, according to The Hindu, which reported the case on Monday. The allegation comes from the wife of a convict, who made the claim in a statement before a court under Section 183 of the Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita (BNSS), 2023, according to police cited in the report. She has reportedly claimed that she was sexually exploited by Somashekhar in return for her husband's parole and eventual release from the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison. Her husband was released from the prison on the basis of a forged Supreme Court order, the report says. She further alleged that an accused named Srikanth, a second division assistant in the prison's convict section, told her that she should 'sexually cooperate' with Somashekhar to secure her husband's release. The release she describes matches a notorious 2018 forgery case. According to Parappana Agrahara police, life convict Shankar A was released from Bengaluru Central Prison on November 13, 2018, on the strength of a fabricated Supreme Court order dated November 2, 2018, which purported to direct his release. Police allege that Srikanth, who worked as a second division assistant in the convict section at the time, forged the document. Both Shankar and Srikanth were arrested after the forgery came to light. The new allegation layers a darker dimension onto that case: that a woman whose husband's freedom hung on a forged piece of paper was pressed for sexual favours by the very officer who controlled the prison's gates. The Hindu's report says the allegation was recorded under Section 183 BNSS, which gives statements made before a magistrate the weight of evidence. The full details of any departmental or criminal action against the officer were not yet public at the time of going to press.