Vijayawada: Senior IPS officer AB Venkateshwar Rao, who has been suspended from service by the State government on the allegations of committing irregularities in a procurement scam, has got the much needed relief in the Supreme Court.
The apex court cancelled his two year long suspension while dealing with a special leave petition filed by the State government. It also dismissed the special leave petition of the Sate government.
The SC made it clear that the suspension of the IPS officer can’t be extended beyond two years. A three judge bench headed by Justice MA Khanwilkar asked the Sate government to take the IPS officer back into service. The Sate government approached the Supreme Court challenging the order of the High Court issued on May 22, 2020 and urged the court to set aside the orders.
During the course of arguments, the apex court asked the counsel for the State government to produce evidence and reports that allow the suspension of the officer beyond the period of two years. The State government submitted the evidence and the reports as per the orders of the three-judge bench of the SC. However, the bench was not satisfied with the evidence and reports produced by the State government.
It also rejected the plea of the State government to grant some more time for the submission of proper evidence and passed the final orders. The SC made it clear that the two-year period suspension of AB Venkateshwar Rao ended on February 7, 2022 and added that all kinds of service benefits would apply to the IPS officer after the aforementioned date. AB Venkateshwar Rao is a 1989 batch IPS officer.
Meanwhile, the suspended IPS officer AB Venkateshwar Rao expressed his happiness over the orders of the Supreme Court and thanked the apex court for its orders. Speaking to media persons in New Delhi, he sad the State government had spent crores of rupees of public money to fight the case against him and added that it paid ₹20 lakh to senior advocate Prakash Reddy to fight the case against him in Central Administrative Tribunal.
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