Four police officers of the Tirupati Urban district, all discharging duty from the Tiruchanur police station, have been suspended on charges of corruption on Wednesday.
Superintendent of Police P. Parameswara Reddy announced the suspension of Circle Inspector M. Subrahmanyam, Sub-Inspectors Veeresh, M. Ramakrishna and B. Ramakrishna Reddy, for reportedly forcibly getting a private godown vacated and for attempting to encash a cigarette consignment worth ₹20 lakh belonging to ITC. This, the four had reportedly done in collusion with a group of private individuals.
Following a complaint from the ITC, the SP ordered a departmental enquiry which revealed that the Chennai-based Muthu Kumar, a distributor for ITC and other FMCG products, had taken a two-storied building in the city’s Srinivasapuram locality on lease from D.G. Nishanth, a resident of Hyderabad.
Though Nishanth sold off the building to one Rehman, Muthu Kumar, who had been refusing to vacate the building claiming to be its owner, had to finally yield when Rehman hired local goons Srinivas and Irfan for the job.
The police department entered the picture when Mr. Veeresh, had taken away ITC’s cigarette consignment and encashed it for ₹20 lakh, allegedly in collusion with Srinivas and Irfan.
He also reportedly shared a portion of the proceeds with fellow personnel, who also had to face the axe when the issue tumbled out of the cupboard. Mr. Parameswara Reddy said anyone trying to bring disrepute to the police force would face similar action.
