SC asks AP govt to restore ABV service

The supreme court on Friday directed the AP government to take back senior IPS officer A B Venkateswara Rao into service. The court upheld the AP high court’s earlier order and quashed the government’s suspension order.

The senior IPS officer was suspended on February 8, 2020 on the charges of misuse of power as head of the state intelligence chief. The government alleged that Venkateswara Rao had favoured his son in the purchase of electronic gadgets for the State police department.

When he filed a case challenging his suspension, the AP High Court directed the state to withdraw suspension. However, the state filed a special leave petition in the supreme court, on which the court gave its verdict today.

The state government had failed to prove charges against the senior IPS officer despite keeping him under suspension for two years. As the all India service officers cannot be kept under suspension for more than two years, the court directed the state government to take him back to service.

While it is not known how the state government would react to this and whether it would give him any posting or not, Venkateswara Rao reacted sharply, hitting hard at the government. “Why did the officers suspend me? Which psycho wanted my suspension?” he shot back.

Venkateswara Rao is accused of playing a key role in engineering defection of 23 MLAs from the YSR Congress into the TDP in 2016. He is also accused of handling the political affairs of the TDP and helped Chandrababu Naidu during the elections, till he was kept aside by the EC.