By IANS,
Hyderabad : In a setback to the Andhra Pradesh government, the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Tuesday set aside the appointment of V. Dinesh Reddy as the state’s director general of police.
The Hyderabad bench of the CAT set aside the police chief’s appointment on a petition filed by his colleague and senior-most Indian Police Service (IPS) officer inn the state P. Gautam Kumar, who is the principal secretary, home.
The CAT directed the state government to send a new list of senior most IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) within a week before appointing a new DGP.
Gautam Kumar’s counsel Jonnalagadda Sudhir said the CAT has asked the government to complete the process of appointing a new police chief within three weeks.
Challenging Reddy’s appointment, Gautam Kumar alleged that the state government ignored his seniority. In his petition before the CAT, he argued that the government violated the Supreme Court order in this regard.
The apex court in a case had ruled that the state government should send a list of three senior-most IPS officers to the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for selection of the DGP.
This is the second time that Gautam Kumar, an IPS officer of 1975 batch, has challenged the appointment of the DGP and got a favourable order from the CAT.
The CAT on April 27 last year had set aside Arvinda Rao’s appointment and had directed the state government to appoint a new DGP in two months. However, the state government challenged the CAT order in the high court, which suspended the order.
Dinesh Reddy took over as the new DGP on June 30 last year following the retirement of Arvinda Rao. Both Reddy and Rao are 1977-batch IPS officers. While appointing Dinesh Reddy, the state government ignored Gautam Kumar and three other officers senior to him.
The CAT order setting aside Dinesh Reddy’s appointment came at a time when another senior IPS officer, Umesh Kumar, is facing arrest for allegedly forging a letter in a parliament member’s name to prevent Dinesh Reddy’s appointment.
A Hyderabad court Saturday issued a non-bailable warrant against Umesh Kumar, who is currently the chairman of Godavari Valley Development Authority (GVDA). The same day he reportedly went into hiding. The high court, however, stayed the warrant Monday.
Umesh Kumar with the help of a former journalist had allegedly produced a forged letter in the name of a Rajya Sabha member to the central government. The forged letter was used to make allegations against Dinesh Reddy to mar his chances of being appointed as the DGP.