‘Man convicted in Bengaluru BPO staffer rape was never on parole’

BENGALURU: Shivakumar, a convict in BPO employee Pratibha rape and murder case, was never released on parole, jail officials said on Wednesday.An internal probe was ordered by Parappana Agrahara jail superintendent Somashekar after a photo of Shivakumar with a woman surfaced in some sections of media.

There were rumours that the woman in the picture was a Home Guard. Somashekar said that an internal inquiry was conducted but they did not come across any breach of rule.“The last time he went out was for medical check-up in December 2016. The photo seems to be morphed as we have inquired all the police personnel working in the prison. We don’t know who the woman in the photo is,” he added.

A police official said, “This photo is doing the rounds since December last year. There is no confirmation on whether the photo is morphed or not.”On September 13, 2005, Pratibha, a BPO employee with HP, was raped and killed by the cab driver Shivakumar while she was leaving home for night shift work.
Five years after the incident, the fast track court ordered life time imprisonment to the convict.