A nasty public spat between two top women officers in Karnataka has come as a major embarrassment to the state administration with Home Minister Araga Jnanendra today issuing a warning that strict action would be taken in the matter.

On Sunday, D Roopa Moudgil, an IPS officer, shared private photos of a IAS officer Rohini Sindhuri on social media. She alleged that Rohini Sindhuri had violated service conduct rules by sending her photos to male IAS officers.

D Roopa posted the photos on her Facebook page and alleged that Ms Sindhuri had shared them with three IAS officers in 2021 and 2022.

The day before, D Roopa had put out a long list of corruption accusations against Ms Sindhuri. She claimed she had lodged a complaint with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma on the issue.

A furious Ms Sindhuri said in a statement on Sunday that D Roopa was driving a “false, personal vilification campaign” against her and threatened to take action against her.

“She collected photos from social media and screenshots of (my) WhatsApp status to defame me. As she has alleged that I sent these pictures to some officials, I urge her to reveal their names,” Ms Sindhuri said.

She hit back at the IPS officer saying: “Mental illness is a huge problem, it needs to be addressed by medication and counselling. When it affects people in responsible positions, it becomes all the more dangerous. Roopa IPS has been driving false, personal vilification campaigns against me which is her standard modus operandi,” she alleged.

The Karnataka Home Minister said he had discussed the unsavoury controversy with the state police chief and the Chief Minister was also aware of it.

“We are not sitting quiet, action will be taken against them. They both are behaving in such a bad way – not even normal people speak on the streets like this,” the minister added.

D Roopa is currently posted as the Managing Director of the Karnataka Handicrafts Development Corporation and Ms Sindhuri is the Commissioner of the Hindu Religious Institutions and Charitable Endowment Department.

The feud reportedly started when images of Ms Sindhuri sitting with Janata Dal Secular MLA Sa Ra Mahesh in a restaurant recently went viral. The two had several public showdowns accusing each other of corruption earlier as well when Ms Sindhuri was posted in Mysuru in 2021.

D Roopa questioned why an IAS officer would meet a politician and suggested that the two had struck a deal.

However, Ms Sindhuri trashed the allegation.