HC strikes down new AP DGP's appointment, fines govt

The Andhra Pradesh government faced a major embarrassment in the high court on Thursday when a division bench struck down the appointment of V Dinesh Reddy as the state director general of police.

Justices G Raghu Ram and M S Ramachandra Rao rejected the petition of the state government challenging the orders of the Central Administrative Tribunal quashing the appointment of Dinesh Reddy.

Another senior IPS officer P Gautam Kumar had challenged Reddy's appointment terming it as 'illegal' and a violation of the guidelines prescribed for the appointment of the DGP.

Apart from rejecting the petition, the high court also imposed a fine of Rs 5,000 on the government.

The court has given the government two weeks time to complete the process of choosing a new DGP and asked it to send a panel of three senior IPS officers. Till then, Reddy will be the in charge head of the state police force.

However, the state government was still hopeful of retaining Reddy as the DGP because his name will figure in the list of the three senior IPS officers.

Gautam Kumar, disappointed with the attitude of the state government, has resigned from service. The state government has accepted his resignation.

The government was expecting that the central government will finalise Reddy's name from its panel.

Reddy, who was appointed as the DGP on July 1, 2011, is embroiled in many other controversies.

He is involved in a legal fight with another IPS officer Umesh Kumar.

While Umesh had alleged that Reddy suppressed the facts about his properties at the time of his appointment as the DGP, the latter counter charged him with forgery. The matter is pending before the court.

There are also allegations that Reddy helped his relative and state law minister E Pratap Reddy in Gali Janardhan Reddy cash for bail case.