Bengaluru: A special investigation team into series of sleaze videos of suspended Karnataka Director General of Police (DGP) Ramachandra Rao has turned in its findings, sending a major blow to the sacked official. The investigation has confirmed that purported videos featuring him are completely genuine – not deepfakes, not AI-generated, not edited in any way. It has triggered a formal departmental inquiry against the senior IPS officer, who had consistently denied any involvement and claimed the videos were fabricated.
What the Videos Show
The clips feature a police officer in uniform engaging in indecent physical acts with two women inside what is believed to be a government office. The videos were reportedly shot between 2016 and 2017 inside the office of the Inspector General of Police, Belagavi range, a post that Rao had held during that period.
When the videos first surfaced and fingers pointed at him, Rao flatly denied everything. He told reporters the footage was morphed and AI-generated and threatened legal action against those he claimed were trying to frame him.
Government Steps In
The controversy quickly threatened to blow up into a full-blown political crisis. Acting swiftly, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah suspended Rao and ordered an independent probe. He set up a four-member committee of senior IPS officers to get to the bottom of the matter.
The committee was headed by Additional Director General of Police R. Hitendra, with Chetan Singh Rathore, Rishyanth CB and Kala Krishnaswamy as members.
What the 100-Page Report Says
The committee has now submitted its findings, a detailed 100-page report, to the state government. The conclusions are damning:
- The videos are real and untampered
- The Forensic Sciences Laboratory (FSL) confirmed that nobody edited or manipulated the footage
- Junior staff, including orderlies, drivers and office workers who served under Rao during his Belagavi posting, gave statements to the committee. They identified the two women in the videos and confirmed the women made repeated visits to Rao’s private chamber
- Sources reveal that one of the women herself recorded the video on her mobile phone, and did so deliberately
Women Have Gone Missing
Both women central to the case have gone incommunicado since the controversy erupted. However, the committee has made clear they will need to surface and record their formal statements. Their testimony could prove critical to the departmental inquiry that now follows.
What Happens to Rao Now
Following the committee’s report, the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms issued a formal notice to Rao on Wednesday, officially setting the departmental inquiry in motion.
Rao is scheduled to retire on May 31. However, sources say that if the inquiry is still ongoing when he hangs up his uniform, the government will withhold his pension and all post-retirement benefits until the process concludes, meaning the scandal will follow him even after he leaves service.
Already in the Scanner
This is not the first time Rao has found himself in trouble. He had earlier come under scrutiny after his daughter Ranya Rao was caught at Bengaluru airport attempting to smuggle over 14 kg of gold from Dubai. That episode had already led to him being placed on compulsory leave before he was reinstated, only to then find himself at the centre of this fresh and far more serious controversy.
With the forensic evidence now on record and witness statements backing the probe committee’s findings, Rao’s attempts to dismiss the videos as fabricated appear to have conclusively fallen apart.
