Bengaluru police have arrested M. Somashekar, Deputy Inspector General of Prisons (North Zone), Kalaburagi, for allegedly assisting the illegal release of a life convict from Bengaluru Central Prison in 2018 on the strength of a forged Supreme Court order. He was taken into custody on October 4 and remanded to police custody until October 9 after investigators found that he had not cooperated and had concealed information about the forgery.
Somashekar was Chief Superintendent of Bengaluru Central Prison at Parappana Agrahara when the convict, Shankar A. Aradhya, walked out on November 13, 2018. The release was processed on a document purporting to be a Supreme Court order dated November 2, 2018, in his criminal appeal. Aradhya paid a fine of ₹10,000 linked to that purported order and was set free the same day. Unlike routine court communications, which reach the prison electronically, the papers were hand-delivered.
The fraud remained undetected for nearly eight years. It surfaced after an anonymous petition reached the office of Alok Kumar, Director General of Prisons. An inquiry by the DIG (South) followed. On May 20, 2026, the Superintendent (in-charge) of Bengaluru Central Prison lodged a complaint with Parappana Agrahara police. Verification with the office of the Assistant Registrar of the Supreme Court confirmed that no such release order had been issued. Police registered a case under Sections 465, 466, 468, 471, 472 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code, covering forgery of valuable security and judicial records, use of forged documents, and cheating.
Investigation has identified S. Srikanth, then a Second Division Assistant and later a First Division Assistant in the prison’s Convict Prisoner Section, as the person who forged the Supreme Court order. Aradhya’s wife told police that she approached Srikanth for help in securing her husband’s release. A police officer said Srikanth demanded ₹12 lakh and was paid ₹6 lakh, after which the forged order was used to obtain the release. She also stated that Somashekar had assisted in the release. Srikanth, Aradhya and Aradhya’s wife were arrested earlier and remanded to judicial custody. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Electronic City) M. Narayana announced Somashekar’s arrest on Monday.
Aradhya had been serving life imprisonment in a 2001 kidnapping-for-ransom case registered by Chickpet police. Fast Track Court-I convicted him on July 12, 2004, under Section 364A of the IPC (kidnapping for ransom) and Section 120B (criminal conspiracy), and sentenced him to life imprisonment with a fine of ₹10,000. His appeals before the Karnataka High Court and the Supreme Court failed, and the sentence stood. Some later reports have described the original offence as murder; the prison complaint and the detailed police account identify it as the 2001 kidnapping-for-ransom case. Earlier coverage also referred to him as Shankar Arumugam.
Police are now examining how the forged order was received and cleared inside the prison, whether it was verified before release, and which officials authorised the discharge. The probe remains open.
