Vijayawada: Adding credence to speculation that senior TS Police officer Stephen Ravindra will head the intelligence wing of the AP Police, he met Chief Minister-designate Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy at the latter’s residence in Tadepalli on Monday.
Mr Ravindra, a senior Telangana cadre IPS officer, is tipped to be the intelligence chief of AP. For this to happen, he has to be shifted to the Andhra Pradesh cadre from Telangana state.
It is learnt that Mr Reddy has already put in a request to Telangana state Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in this regard.
Mr Ravindra, currently Inspector-General, Hyderabad Range, is heading the Special Investigation Team constituted to probe the case of IT Grids (India) Private Limited which has been named in the alleged theft of data of AP voters to help the TD’s Sevamitra App.
Mr Ravindra was first posted in Warangal district where he was mentored by then Warangal Range DIG Gautam Sawang who is now being tipped to become the DGP.
With the model code of conduct ending on Sunday, the continuation of senior IPS officer Kumar Vishwajeet who was appointed by the Election Commission of India during the polls, as the intelligence chief is at the discretion of the new government under the leadership of Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy.
According to highly-placed sources in the YSRC, Mr Reddy is of the opinion that the N. Chandrababu Naidu government had used intelligence services for political purposes. He wants to overhaul the intelligence wing and bring in stability with respect to safety and security.
In this endeavour, he is stated to be looking for a tough and upright officer like Mr Ravindra.
Mr Reddy when he was in the Opposition often accused the then state intelligence chief A.B. Venkateswar Rao, who was shunted out by the Election Commission just before the polls, of being instrumental in luring YSRC MLAs to join the TD.
