Hyderabad: The Election Commission of India (ECI) on Sunday issued orders suspending Director-General of Police Anjani Kumar and served notices to Additional DG rank officers Mahesh M. Bhagwat and Sanjay Kumar Jain for violating the model code of conduct (MCC) by meeting TPCC president A. Revanth Reddy, a Congress candidate and star campaigner at his residence.
Hours after suspending Kumar, the ECI appointed the 1990 batch IPS officer Ravi Gupta as DGP. Chief Secretary A. Shanti Kumari directed Ravi Gupta to take over charge immediately. Gupta is DG of the Anti Corruption Bureau and holds additional charge as DG, Vigilance and Enforcement.
Bhagwat is the state in-charge to monitor expenditure on election-related matters and Sanjay Kumar Jain is state nodal officer.
In the order, the ECI said that they had noticed on social media networking sites that Kumar, Bhagwat, and Jain went to Revanth Reddy's residence and greeted him which it said was in violation of MCC rules. While suspending Kumar, the ECI also asked Bhagwat and Jain to send their explanation on why the ECI should not take action against them for violating the MCC.
