Karnataka ACB files chargesheet against 6 persons, including Sasikala

News Network

February 3, 2022

Bengaluru, Feb 3: The Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a chargesheet in a case relating to alleged irregularities and preferential treatment provided to V K Sasikala, the close aide of former Tamil Nadu chief minister late J Jayalalithaa, at the Central Prison here.

The ACB informed the Karnataka High Court that a chargesheet has been filed against six people, including two senior prison officials of Karnataka and Sasikala. Sasikala, who was convicted in the multi-crore disproportionate assets case, had served four years imprisonment at the Parappana Agrahara Central Prison here.

She was released from jail in January 2021. The Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Ritu Raj Awasthi and Justice Suraj Govindaraj, which was hearing a PIL filed by K S Gita, a Chennai-based social worker and educationist on Wednesday, was informed that the chargesheet was filed on January 7, 2022 after the state government accorded sanction on December 30, 2021, for prosecution of two prison officials.

The petitioner had claimed that despite a report submitted by retired IAS officer Vinay Kumar, indicating that preferential treatment was given to Sasikala inside the prison, the ACB had not completed the investigation.

The two officials who have been named as accused one and two in the chargesheet are Krishna Kumar, who was the Chief Superintendent and Anitha, the Superintendent of the Central prison at Parappana Agrahara when the illegal facilities and preferential treatment were allegedly provided to Sasikala and her sister-in-law Ilavarasi, who was also serving a sentence in the prison.

Sasikala and Ilavarasi have also been named as accused in the chargesheet. The court had earlier directed the government to take a decision on the sanction request forwarded to it by the ACB on July 15 last year.

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Why Mangaluru Could Become India’s Next Offshore Wind Energy Hub

News Network

February 3,2026

Dakshina Kannada MP Capt Brijesh Chowta has urged the Centre to give high priority to offshore wind energy generation along the Mangaluru coast, citing its strategic importance to India’s green energy and port-led development goals.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha under Rule 377, Chowta said studies by the National Institute of Oceanography have identified the Mangaluru coastline as part of India’s promising offshore wind ‘Zone-2’, covering nearly 6,490 sq km. He noted that the region’s relatively low exposure to cyclones and earthquakes makes it suitable for long-term offshore wind projects and called for its development as a dedicated offshore wind energy zone.

Highlighting the role of New Mangalore Port, Chowta said its modern infrastructure, multiple berths and heavy cargo-handling capacity position it well as a logistics hub for transporting and assembling large wind energy equipment.

He also pointed to the presence of major industrial units such as MRPL, OMPL, UPCL and the Mangaluru SEZ, which could serve as direct buyers of green power through power purchase agreements, improving project viability and speeding up execution.

With Karnataka’s peak power demand crossing 18,000 MW in early 2025, Chowta stressed the need to diversify renewable energy sources. He added that offshore wind projects in the Arabian Sea are strategically safer compared to the cyclone-prone Bay of Bengal.

Calling the project vital to India’s target of 500 GW of renewable energy by 2030, Chowta urged the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy to initiate resource assessments, pilot projects and stakeholder consultations at the earliest.

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