More than two years after being suspended from service, senior Indian Police Service officer and former Andhra Pradesh intelligence chief A B Venkateshwara Rao on Friday came to the state secretariat in full uniform.
Venkateshwara Rao met chief secretary Sameer Sharma and requested him to reinstate him in the service as per the Supreme Court order last week.
He handed over the copy of the Supreme Court order and explained to him the directions given by the apex court.
“I reported to the Chief Secretary as per the court directions. I brought to his notice about my posting and the salaries pending for the last 27 months. I requested him to issue necessary orders in this regard,” Rao told reporters later.
The chief secretary assured that the file on his reinstatement would be processed and necessary orders would be issued accordingly.
On Friday last week, the Supreme Court directed the Jagan Mohan Reddy government to revoke the suspension of Venkateshwara Rao and reinstate him in the service immediately.
The 1989-batch IPS officer, who served as the state intelligence chief during the previous Telugu Desam Party regime, had been under suspension since February 8, 2020, on the charges of violation of rules in procuring some security equipment from Israel during his tenure.
A division bench of the Supreme Court, comprising Justice A M Khanwilkar, Justice Abhay S Oka and Justice C T Ravi Kumar, dismissed a special leave petition filed by the state government challenging an earlier high court order of May 22, 2020, striking down his suspension.
The Supreme Court bench upheld the judgement of the high court and observed that the suspension of the IPS officer for more than two years was against the law.
It asked the government to revoke the suspension, reinstate him in the service and pay him salary with effect from the date of the completion of the two-year suspension term.
The apex court was also not satisfied with the reasons mentioned by the state government seeking further extension on the suspension of Rao.