An upheaval in the State police department is on the cards soon after the new government takes charge with TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy swearing in as the Chief Minister on Thursday.
Shifting of officers from the top brass down to the sub-division level is inevitable in the backdrop of the Congress leaders and public representatives accusing some police officers of partisan attitude when they were in the Opposition. What remains to be seen is if the government would change the functioning of the police department with regard to postings of officers and handling of cases.
“Though officially no one spoke, it is a known secret that postings of Sub-Inspectors, Inspectors and Deputy Superintendents of Police were given mostly on the basis of the consent letter of a local MLA. There are exceptions but rare,” said retired police officer Peddireddy Thirupathi Reddy. Having joined police department as an SI in 1970 and retired in 2003, Mr. Reddy worked as a resource person for training police personnel in different parts of the country.
Image of police dept.
This system of posting field-level officers only if a local public representative issued a letter had dented the image of the police department, giving scope to partisan policing. “During our time, no public representative ever interfered in postings, let alone in police functioning,” Mr. Reddy recalled. Complaints galore that political bosses used police department to target their opponents.
Mr. Revanth Reddy himself made serious allegations when police picked him up from his house during his election campaign in Kodangal in 2018 Assembly elections. Mr. Reddy then approached the High Court questioning the approach of the police and accused them of targeting him at the behest of their political bosses.
Not permitting Opposition political leaders to stage protests on any issue and subjecting them to house arrests was another serious issue political parties had taken objection to in the past. With the change of guard at the government, speculation was rife that even the State police chief would be changed.
However, even before that, DGP Anjani Kumar was suspended with the Election Commission of India (ECI) finding fault with him for meeting Mr. Revanth Reddy at the latter’s residence even when poll counting was going on. Soon after disciplinary action against the DGP, government had replaced Mr. Anjani Kumar with Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Director General Ravi Gupta, and gave him full additional charge of the DGP post.
It is learnt that more transfers of top police officials are in the pipeline soon after Mr. Revanth Reddy assumes charge as the CM.
