They are facing allegations of dancing to the tunes of their earlier political master and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Published Aug 23, 2024 | 11:00 AM ⚊ Updated Aug 23, 2024 | 1:04 PM
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. (X)
The 16 IPS officers, who have fallen from grace after the advent of the TDP government in Andhra Pradesh, seem to be going through a process of catharsis.
They are facing allegations of dancing to the tunes of their earlier political master and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and are now stewing in their juices.
They have been asked to report at the DGP’s office daily, sign the register at 10 am, stay till evening and sign the register again before leaving.
This was the punishment meted out to them for “taking law into their hands” at the behest of Jagan Mohan Reddy and allegedly resorting to several atrocities.
Now, Chandrababu Naidu has done the rarest of rare in taking action against them by benching them. They do not know how long they have to live in this predicament, facing humiliation in front of the other IPS officers. This “exile in public view” is likely to continue for some more time, if the grapevine has to be believed.
They are atoning for their sins, by sitting in a room in the DGP’s office, twiddling their thumbs scrolling up pages on their mobile phones or sharing their misfortune as Naidu believes they are still Jagan’s men.
“These tainted officers have to suffer for some more time. After the process of purging is completed, the government may have mercy on them,” a TDP leader in the know of the happenings at the DGP office said.
The 16 officers who “committed crimes at the behest of Jagan Mohan Reddy” were: Two DIG rank officers – PSR Anjaneyulu, PV Sunil Kumar, one additional DG rank officer N Sanjay and three IG rank officers Kanthi Rana Tata, G Pala Raju and Kolli Raghuram Reddy. The remaining officers are RN Ammireddy, G Vijaya Rao, Vishal Gunni, Anburajan KKN, Y Ravi Shankar Reddy, Y Rishanth Reddy, K Raghuveer Reddy, P Parameshwar Reddy, P Joshua and Krishna Kanth Patel.
In a memo issued by the DGP on 12 August, these officers were asked to report to the DGP’s office, in Mangalagiri in the Guntur district, every day at 10 am and sign register kept for them in the waiting room.
The officers were also asked to sign while signing off duty for the day. They should make themselves available, should an emergency arise requiring their services but so far there has been no such emergency.
In the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy dispensation, PSR Anjaneyulu was the chief of intelligence and PV Sunil Kumar headed the CID that probed the Amaravati land scam in which the YSRCP had suspected the hand of several top TDP leaders.
A case has been registered against former YSRCP MP Ragurama Krishna Raju for administering third-degree treatment to him for remaining a dissident in the party.
Additional DGP N Sanjay remained the most visible of all officers doing the YSRCP’s bidding. He supervised the investigation of the Skill Development Scam and was directly responsible for the arrest of N Chandrababu Naidu on 9 September, 2023 who was later remanded to judicial custody in Rajamahendravaram central prison, which, in retrospect, appears to have sounded the political death knell for Jagan Mohan Reddy.
The ₹371 crore scam is alleged to have taken place when Naidu was the chief minister between 2014 and 2019. Naidu was released on 31 October on bail after being in jail for 52 days.
Many of the benched officers are facing allegations that they had worked in favour of the YSRCP during the general elections in June this year.
The TDP leaders believe that it was the right treatment given to them. They would know that bending backwards and fawning over the political masters to ingratiate them, with utter disregard for the law, would blow up in their faces one day.
The government seems to be waiting to break their morale and nerves completely and make them go on their knees and turn into “approvers”.
It is expecting them to cooperate with the government in giving evidence of all other atrocities that had been committed in the past so that it could take corrective action.
The officers seem to have become mellowed down already, having to stay at the DGP office throughout the day doing nothing, while all other officers will be doing their work.
The government would welcome if they cooperate with the government but before that, they should be totally de-jaganmohanised.
“They will have to earn the trust of the new government before expecting it to be sympathetic to them. A police officer gets paid to protect the law and not to violate it,” the TDP leader said.
The IPS officers too appear to be willing to abandon Jagan Mohan Reddy for good and work for the new TDP government.
“We will cooperate with the government. For that matter, any government officer would have to,” one of the 16 officers said matter-of-factly but it conveyed a feeling that the officers were slowly capitulating.
He also said he did not know when he would get posted.
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