Karnataka Prison Department Deputy Inspector General of Prisons M. Somashekar has been arrested in connection with the fraudulent release of a life convict who walked out of Bengaluru Central Prison in November 2018 using a forged Supreme Court order. Somashekar, who was serving as the chief superintendent of the central prison when the prisoner was released, was taken into custody after police alleged that he played a role in facilitating the release, withheld crucial information, and failed to cooperate with investigators during the ongoing probe.
The convict, Shankar Arumugam, was originally convicted in a kidnapping and extortion case registered at Chickpet police station. On July 12, 2004, a fast-track special court awarded him life imprisonment along with a fine of ₹10,000. Shankar challenged the conviction and sentence before the High Court and subsequently appealed to the Supreme Court, but both appellate courts upheld the lower court verdict. Despite the confirmation of his life sentence, he was freed from custody on November 13, 2018, after paying the ₹10,000 fine on the basis of a counterfeit judicial order presented to prison administrators.
Anonymous letter exposes forged apex court order
The fraudulent release came to light nearly eight years later through an anonymous letter received by the prison department. Following the alert, authorities initiated an inquiry and forwarded the purported judicial order to the Registrar of the Supreme Court for formal verification, after which the document was confirmed to be forged. The officer in charge of Bengaluru Central Prison subsequently filed an official complaint at Parappana Agrahara police station to initiate criminal proceedings.
Acting on the complaint, police traced and arrested Shankar Arumugam in Mysuru in June. During custodial interrogation, investigators uncovered the alleged involvement of Srikanth S., a prison department staff member who was working as a Second Division Assistant in the section handling convicted prisoners at the time of the release. Srikanth was arrested for allegedly fabricating the forged Supreme Court order relating to Shankar’s appeal, prompting investigators to examine how the fake paper bypassed verification mechanisms to reach the administrative desk.
Custodial remand and role of then superintendent
Police investigators subsequently questioned Shankar’s wife, who alleged that the then chief superintendent actively helped secure her husband’s release from the central prison. Based on her statements and corroborating departmental material, investigators focused on Somashekar’s supervisory conduct. Senior officers stated that Somashekar repeatedly failed to provide requisite case records and declined to cooperate with inquiry officers, leading to his detention and subsequent formal arrest.
Somashekar, who was serving as the DIG of Prisons in Kalaburagi at the time of his arrest, was produced before a city court, which remanded him to police custody until October 9 for sustained interrogation. According to senior police officials, Somashekar is the third accused named in the case. Shankar Arumugam and Srikanth S. had been arrested earlier and were remanded to judicial custody following their court appearances.
Scrutiny on institutional negligence and separate charges
The investigation is actively examining whether wider negligence or administrative collusion within the prison hierarchy enabled the life convict to walk out without mandatory scrutiny. Police are attempting to identify every individual involved in manufacturing the counterfeit judicial order and determining why standard verification protocols with the court registry were completely bypassed prior to authorizing the release.
In addition to the forgery and procedural lapses, police stated that serious allegations concerning the alleged sexual exploitation of Shankar’s wife surfaced during the course of the probe. Those allegations are being investigated separately by the police team. The investigating agency is now piecing together the chronological trail of documents, administrative approvals, and official lapses that permitted a convicted extortionist to evade life imprisonment.
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