Rohini Sindhuri Bio: Rohini Sindhuri is an Indian Administrative Officer of the 2009-batch Karnataka cadre. She was appointed commissioner of the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment Department in June 2021.
In February 2023, she made headlines after IPS officer D. Roopa alleged that Rohini shared her explicit pictures with other IAS officers, which eventually breached the All India Services (Conduct) Rules for officers of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS).
Rohini Sindhuri Bio
Rohini Sinduri or Rohini Sindhuri Dasari or Sindhuri Dasari, was born on Wednesday, 30 May 1984 (age 39 years; as of 2023) in Rudraksha Pally, Sathupally Mandal, Khammam district, Andhra Pradesh, (now Telangana) India. Her zodiac sign is Gemini.
Rohini completed her schooling at the Sri Sathya Sai Higher Secondary School, Andhra Pradesh. She enrolled herself at the Bhoj Reddy Engineering College for Women, Hyderabad, where she earned a Bachelor of Technology (B.Tech) in Chemical Engineering.
Civil Services
| Service | Indian Administrative Service (IAS) |
| Batch | 2009 |
| Cadre | Karnataka |
| Major Designation(s) | 2011: Assistant Commissioner in Tumkur, Karnataka 2012: Commissioner of the urban development department of Tumkur 2013: Director of Rural Development & Panchayat Raj Department, Self Employment Project (SEP), Bangalore 2014: Chief Executive Officer, Zilla Panchayat, Mandya, Government of Karnataka 2015: Managing Director of Karnataka Food & Civil Supplies Corporation Limited (KFCSC) 2017: Deputy Commissioner, Hassan, Karnataka |
Personal details
| Date of Birth | 30 May 1984 (Wednesday) |
| Age (as in 2019) | 35 Years |
| Birthplace | Rudraksha Pally, Sathupally Mandal, Khammam district, Andhra Pradesh, (now Telangana) India |
| Zodiac sign | Gemini |
| Nationality | Indian |
| Hometown | Rudraksha Pally, Sathupally Mandal, Khammam district, Andhra Pradesh, (now Telangana) India |
| College/University | University of Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India |
| Educational Qualification | B.Tech in Chemical Engineering [4] |
| Religion | Hinduism |
| Caste | Dasari [5] |
| Hobbies | Listening to music |
Family
Rohini Sindhuri belongs to a Telugu family. Rohini’s father’s name is Jaipal Reddy. Her mother’s name is Srilakshmi Reddy. Rohini has a younger brother, and a sister, Priyanka Reddy, who is a dermatologist.
Rohini’s husband, Sudhir Reddy, is a software engineer from Karnataka. Together, they have two children, a son and a daughter, Sirinya Reddy.
Rohini’s father-in-law’s name is Narayana Reddy. Her brother-in-law’s name is Madhusudhan Reddy.
Controversies
Fought for premature transfer
On 14 July 2017, Rohini was appointed as the deputy commissioner of the Hassan district in Karnataka. Within seven months of her appointment, Rohini received the orders for her transfer on 22 January 2018, although her minimum tenure to serve the post was for two years.
As per some media sources, the reason behind the transfer was her tiff with the politician A Manju, which happened while awarding the contract of construction for the event of Mahamastakabhisheka, held in Shravanabelagola, Karnataka.
As per sources, the clash between the two emerged when Rohini awarded the contract to the Public Works Department (PWD), whereas Manju wanted to give the contract to the Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited (KRDCL).
Rohini appealed to the Election Commission (EC) regarding her alleged premature transfer, and consequently, her transfer order was stalled.
However, after two days, the state government issued another transfer order to Rohini, which provoked her to move to the Karnataka High Court. On 25 June 2018, she was re-appointed as the deputy commissioner of the district after fighting the case for almost five months.
Locked the district in-charge minister’s office
On 31 March 2018, during her stint as the Hassan deputy commissioner, Rohini stirred controversy when she locked down the office of the Indian politician A Manju, located at the PWD Inspection Bungalow.
Manju’s office, which was restricted to be used for election purposes, had some women workers inside, who behind closed doors were working to finish some pending work.
A case was booked against Manju after Rohini issued a notice to him, seeking an explanation from him regarding the use of government space for election work, which was a violation of the Model Code of Conduct.
Also read – Sudhir Mishra Bio
Accused of harassment and humiliation
On 3 June 2021, Shilpa Nag, an IAS officer, announced her resignation, citing that she was being targeted by Rohini Sindhuri for not fulfilling her duties as the commissioner of Mysuru City Corporation (MCC). Shilpa alleged that Rohini humiliated her and the MCC staff members by constantly complaining that no work was being carried out by them.
However, Rohini denied the allegation made against her and claimed that she only asked for the documents related to the Covid management and the fund allocated for Covid relief, which did not account for any kind of harassment.
Consequently, the feud between the two resulted in their respective transfers by the Karnataka government.
Sindhuri, who earlier served as the Mysuru Deputy Commissioner was appointed as the commissioner of the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Department, whereas Shilpa was appointed as the director of E-governance in Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department.
Defamation case filed by S. R. Mahesh
In September 2022, an Indian politician S. R. Mahesh filed a civil and criminal defamation case against Rohini Sindhuri, seeking a written apology in a leading newspaper with a compensation of Rs 1 crore.
Mahesh, who serves as the Member of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the Krishnarajanagara constituency, alleged that Rohini falsely accused him in an illegal land-grabbing case and passed some derogatory statements against him, which ruined his political career.
Alleged of misusing state resources
In December 2022, Lucky Ali, an Indian singer, accused Rohini Sindhuri and his husband Sudhir Reddy of allegedly helping the land mafia in illegally capturing his farmhouse, which is a trust property, situated at Kenchenahalli, Yelahanka, Bengaluru. Ali claimed that Rohini misused the state resources and her power to help her husband illegally grab the property and forge authentic documents.
However, Sudhir Reddy claimed the accusations as baseless and stated that the property did not belong to Lucky Ali. In an interview, Rohini termed the allegations made against her as groundless.
D. Roopa vs Rohini Sindhuri
In February 2023, the Managing Director of the Karnataka State Handicrafts Development Corporation D Roopa shared pictures of the commissioner for the Hindu Religious and Charitable Endowments Rohini Sindhuri on social media, claiming that Sindhuri shared her private pictures and videos with three IAS officers in 2020 and 2021, which consequently, violated the All India Services (Conduct) Rules for officers of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS).
Roopa further listed 19 allegations against Rohini Sindhuri including corruption accusations, her alleged involvement in the suicide case of D. K. Ravi in 2015, and her connection in controlling the oxygen cylinder supply, which led to the death of 24 patients at the Chamarajanagar hospital in Karnataka in 2021.
Facts
- In 2014, Rohini was posted as the CEO of Mandya Zilla Panchayat. She had launched a drive to provide individual toilets to 1.02 lakh households during 2014–15. Due to her action for cleanliness, she came into limelight. Around 1 Lakh toilets were made in Mandya and it became No. 1 District in the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan in the state and 3rd in India.
- After completing her engineering degree, Rohini worked with a company, Shell, for a brief peroid. However, her interest inclined towards pursuing a career in civil services, and she decided to prepare for UPSC examination.
- She successfully utilised the central government’s Rs. 65 crores fund for drinking water. More than 100 drinking water units were instituted across the city. After being pleased with Rohini’s work, the central government gave Rs. 6 crores extra for the same purpose.
- She also called upon farmers to adopt sustainable farming. Apart from it, she also took the matter of female foeticide in the city seriously. To combat the problems of female foeticide, she ran a program to educate parents against the practice.
- As the CEO of Mandya Zilla Panchayat, she also launched an app for downloading property documents without running around offices.
- In 2017, when Rohini was posted as a District Collector Hassan District, the District was at the 31st place in the SSLC (Secondary School Leaving Certificate) results. After two years in 2019, the District stood first. This all happened due to Rohini’s importance to reform the education system.
- Rohini also took on the Sand mafia, which was very prevalent in Hassan. She conducted raids and took strict actions against culprits.
- In 2018, she was transferred from Hassan District just after seven months service as a Hassan DC. The transfer was due to the pressure from the local politicians. However, she approached the High Court against the transfer. Later, the Cheif Minister, H D Kumaraswamy re-appointed her as the Hassan DC.
- On 1 January 2019, Rohini launched Spandana Online Portal, an online grievance redressal system. With the help of this system, anyone can submit their grievances online easily due to which it becomes easy to assess the problems on priority and the administration can take necessary measures.
- She is fluent in several languages, including Kannada, Telugu, Hindi and English.