IPS officers in a fix, told to report to shunted AB Venkateswara Rao

Hyderabad: IPS officers working with the Andhra Pradesh Police are literally caught between the devil and the deep sea.

Twenty-four hours after the Andhra Pradesh High Court refused to stay the transfer of DG, Intelligence, A.B. Venkateswara Rao, who was shunted out by the Election Commission, many police officers including a few SPs, DIGs and particularly those working in the Intelligence department, have been “ordered” that all field reports pertaining to political and election activity across Andhra Pradesh be sent to Mr Venkateswara Rao without fail.

The late-night oral instructions to all police officers, just hours after the High Court ruling, came as a shocker to many in the cadre. Many say they have no choice but to follow the orders.

The move comes even as the state government sent to the Election Commission the names of three IPS officers — Mr Nalin Prabhat, Mr Kumar Vishwajeet and Mr Mahesh Chandra Ladda — of whom one will be picked as state Intelligence chief. (In a late night development, the Election Commissi-on picked Mr Vishwa-jeet.)

Police sources some of whom got Whatsapp calls from a particular officer last night told this newspaper that they had been ordered to send field reports pertaining to all political activity and electioneering to Mr Venkateswara Rao without fail.

“We have also been asked to keep sending all political inputs, as and when we get them, through Whatsapp besides all field reports,” they said.

One of them went to the extent of saying that perhaps the all-out rivalry between Andhra Pradesh  Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the Centre, vis-a-vis the Election Commission order, is being used as the basis for “this kind of activity (sending reports to Mr Venkates-wara Rao).”

The situation is such that no officer is in a position to question any move by all those who are considered close to the powers-that-be. This would mean that the police officials will be sending reports not only to the new Intelligence chief, but also Mr Venkateswara Rao. Friday’s government order transferring Mr Venkateswara Rao and asking him to report to the headquarters clearly states that the DGP will not assign any poll-related work to him till the completion of the elections. In the normal course, field reports and inputs are sent to the DGP and the Intelligen-ce chief on a daily basis, sometimes on an hourly basis, especially during the elections.

The Intelligence department has a separate wing which gathers political intelligence.

Going all out to support Mr Venkateswara Rao, Mr Naidu took on the EC by filing a writ petition in the AP High Court challenging the transfer. Mr Naidu went a step ahead when he repeatedly mentioned Mr Venkateswara Rao’s transfer and fired salvos at Prime Minister Narendra Modi.