AP govt. suspends IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao yet again

Senior IPS officer AB Venkateswara Rao has once again been suspended. The Chief Secretary to Government has issued orders suspending AB, an IPS officer of the 1989 AP cadre, for making indisciplined remarks. The CS orders state that the state has the discretion to suspend. The Jagan government, which had earlier suspended AB, has recently suspended him and appointed him as the Printing and Stationery DG.

AB Venkateswara Rao was the Chief of Intelligence during the TDP regime. The Jagan government suspended him on charges of violating the Terms of Service at the time. However, the senior IPS officer filed a petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) seeking to declare the suspension illegal.

The government has approached the Supreme Court after the AP High Court ruled in favour of lifting his suspension. But the Supreme Court refused to intervene in the High Court judgment and clarified that the orders of the High Court would be enforced.

The court had directed the government to lift Venkateswara Rao's two-year suspension on February 7 this year and pay his salaries from the next day. The AP government has issued orders lifting the suspension on him. On June 14, the government-appointed AB as commissioner for the AP Printing, Stationery, and Stores department. CS Sameer Sharma issued an abstract that he had been on duty since May 19.