Andhra top cop's petition rejected; won't get term extension

It is now certain that the director general of Andhra Pradesh police V Dinesh Reddy is on the way out. A day after the state government made it clear that his term will not be extended when he reaches the age of superannuation on Sunday, the Central Administration Tribunal has rejected his petition challenging the state government’s stand.

Dinesh Reddy, who was in the headlines for the wrong reasons, including a running feud with his senior colleagues and the media, had demanded the state government to extend his term by one year. But the state government, citing the CBI inquiry into his alleged disproportionate assets, told to the Central Administrative Tribunal that extending his term was not possible.

The memo, filed by the chief secretary before the CAT, quoted the rule book and said that after careful examination of all the aspects it was concluded that it was not proper and desirable in public interest for Dinesh Reddy to continue as DGP beyond his statutory date of superannuation.

Reacting to the government memo, the DGP filed a petition before the CAT seeking extension of service till September 2014. He also wanted the CAT to declare the state government memo “arbitrary and illegal, extraneous and violative of the law declared by the Supreme Court in the Prakash Sing case.”

CAT, after hearing the arguments on Friday decided to reject the fresh petition of Dinesh Reddy and concluded that the state government was justified in its stand.

Dinesh Reddy, the 1977 batch IPS officer, suffered the setback at a time when the Andhra Pradesh media was angered over his alleged harassment of media persons on the reports of his visit to a controversial godman in the old city of Hyderabad. The Hyderabad police booked a case against the resident of editor of The Hindu S Nagesh Kumar in this connection.

The CBI which is probing Reddy’s assets at the behest of the Supreme Court was also likely to summon him for questioning.