AP: ACB refuses to relieve transferred SIT chief

HYDERABAD: It was a day of high drama at the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) headquarters on Wednesday, barely hours after the state government promoted and abruptly transferred K Sreenivasa Reddy, who was heading the SIT probing the murky liquor syndicate operations.Apparently upset over the sudden transfer of Sreenivasa Reddy, ACB director general D Boobathi Babu refused to relieve Sreenivasa Reddy, despite pressure mounting on him to relieve him without any delay. He also did not allow Shivdhar Reddy, who was to replace Sreenivasa Reddy, to assume charge and instead sent him back.The government issued orders past midnight replacing Sreenivasa Reddy with Shivdhar Reddy.Boobathi Babu, on Wednesday also wrote a letter to the state government urging it to keep Sreenivasa Reddy as SIT in-charge till April 16.It was around 10.30 am on Wednesday when Shivdhar Reddy, who till the day before was the chief of Special Intelligence Branch (SIB), walked into the ACB office to take charge of his new assignment.Sources said when Shivdhar Reddy met Boobathi Babu, they had a conversation lasting a few minutes after which Babu was said to have asked Shivdhar to leave and categorically told him that he was not relieving Sreenivasa Reddy now.Following this, Shivdhar Reddy left but hours later, a communication landed on the ACB DG’s table from Shivdhar Reddy. In the message, he said: “Assumed charge as additional director, ACB, relieving K Sreenivasa Reddy in pursuance of the orders issued.” The fax message was sent to the state government with a copy marked to the DG.Meanwhile, Sreenivasa Reddy, who too came to the office around the same time, continued to work in the post of additional director, though orders were issued promoting him to the rank of IGP and posting to coastal security.Sources said Sreenivasa Reddy’s promotion was cleared in order to shift him quickly. In a calculated move, police bosses did not promote Shivdhar Reddy though all his batchmates were promoted on Tuesday, so that he could replace Sreenivasa Reddy as ACB additional director, which is a DIG level post.The idea, sources said, was to promote Shivdhar Reddy later this week so that as IG he could replace present ACB director Satyanarain, a 1987 batch IPS officer, who was promoted to the rank of additional DGP along with his batchmates on Tuesday.By evening, the DGP’s office emailed the “charge assumed” letter of Shivdhar Reddy though the fact remained that Boobathi Babu had still not relieved Sreenivasa Reddy.Though it is unclear why Boobathi Babu chose not to relieve Sreenivasa Reddy immediately , sources said Boobathi Babu was miffed with the way things moved without his knowledge.Boobathi Babu is said to have expressed his displeasure to his colleagues. It is learnt he was worried that the investigation into the liquor syndicate affairs would head nowhere if officers are transferred like this.The lightening speed with which Sreenivasa Reddy was sent packing came as a shock to many in the IPS fraternity,/ After the midnight transfer of Sreenivasa Reddy, “movement orders” which mean the IPS officer can now move to his new posting, were also issued early on Wednesday morning, indicating that the government was in no mood to allow Sreenivasa Reddy to continue in the ACB any more.