After six months coming to power, the coalition government has withdrawn the cases filed by the previous YS Jaganmohan Reddy government against retired IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao (ABV). Chief Secretary to the government Nirabh Kumar Prasad has issued a GO on Saturday stating that these cases are being withdrawn as per the opinions of the Law Department and Advocate General.
The GO stated that ABV has already retired, and in this context, the previous orders given by the courts and the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) are invalid, and the cuts in payments, stopping increments, imposition of penalties and other orders given by the Union Home Ministry are not applicable to him.
It was revealed that the Law Department has stated that since ABV is not currently receiving his salary, future increments cannot be stopped. He said that there was no financial loss to the state government in this matter and STCIL has returned all the funds. The GO further added that the officer who investigated the allegations and violations against ABV did not find any evidence that ABV or his son benefited.
The GO made it clear that the cases are being withdrawn based on the opinions given by the AG and the Law Department on all these. It may be recalled that AB Venkateswara Rao was Intelligence Chief during the previous regime of Chandrababu Naidu.
Former Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy has been targeting him from the time earlier to 2019 elections. On the YCP complaints, during the 2019 elections the Election Commission of India removed him as Intelligence Chief.
As soon as Jagan came to power in 2019, ABV became the government’s prime target and no senior officer was targeted like that in the history of united Andhra Pradesh. Not once but two or three times he was suspended without any reason.
When he approached CAT, CAT advised the Jagan government to lift the suspension. The Jagan government approached the High Court on this. However, the High Court bench made it clear that it would not interfere with the CAT orders. Thus, AB Venkateswara Rao fought for justice for five years. He was given posting only on the day of his retirement.