Senior IPS officer A.B. Venkateswara Rao suffered a setback in the High Court on Wednesday as a single-judge bench, comprising Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy, dismissed his writ petition (WP) seeking a direction to the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) not to arrest him in the case of alleged irregularities in procurement of security equipment when he was the Additional Director-General of Police (intelligence).
While allowing the ACB to conduct the inquiry, Justice Satyanarayana Murthy ordered that the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in Arnesh Kumar V/s State of Bihar should be followed. The ACB filed a petition on August 21 appealing to the High Court to vacate Venkateswara Rao's writ plea.
In a counter affidavit, ACB additional SP A. Suresh Babu stated that an inquiry was conducted into the procurement of an aerostat and an unmanned aerial vehicle worth about ₹25.50 crore by the Intelligence Department from RT Inflatable Objects Limited / RT LTA Systems Limited of Israel, upon the submission of a report by the Chief Secretary (CS) of Government of Andhra Pradesh.
The inquiry was on the basis of the findings of CID which conducted a preliminary inquiry as per the instructions of the then Director-General of Police.
‘Serious misconduct’
The Director-General of ACB reported to the CS that there was a serious misconduct on the part of Venkateswara Rao, and the inquiry was continuing.
The ACB stated that Venkateswara Rao's son Chetan Sai Krishna has been the Indian representative / agent of the company and the former additional DGP pushed the deal knowing well that it was not in public interest. The equipment is meant for use in anti-extremist and security operations.
Venkateswara Rao's contention that the Police Department was acting against him at the behest of the political establishment was nothing but preparing a ground to avoid arrest, ACB standing counsel M. Renuka argued before the court.
