EC shunts out Telangana SP over Congress leader's arrest

The Election Commission on Wednesday ordered the transfer of the Vikarabad Superintendent of Police T. Annapurna, a day after the state Congress Working President Revanth Reddy was arrested by the police.

The poll panel has posted Avinash Mohanthy as the new district Superintendent of Police.

The Election Commission directed the Telangana Director General of Police not to use the services of Annapurna for election purposes.

The action comes a day after Revanth Reddy, also a Congress candidate from Kodangal constituency, was arrested in a raid on his house past midnight.

Police said he was taken into preventive custody as he had threatened to disrupt the election rally of Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao at Kosgi in Kodangal constituency.

Revanth was released after the rally of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief.

The Hyderabad High Court had faulted the Telangana Police for the manner in which Revanth was arrested and wondered if the state had become a banana republic.

The court on Tuesday had summoned the Advocate General to produce the evidence based on which the police acted against Revanth.

The High Court heard the Habeas Corpus petition filed by a Congress leader for a second consecutive day on Wednesday. A division bench of Justice Raghavendra Singh Chauhan and Justice M. Satyanarayana Murthy summoned Director General of Police (DGP) Mahender Reddy and asked him to show the grounds on which the police arrested Revanth.

The DGP was also asked at which level the decision to arrest the Congress candidate was taken.

A lawyer of the petitioner told reporters that the court was not satisfied with the explanation and records provided by the DGP. It raised doubts on the veracity of a document from the intelligence department.

The court directed the DGP to file an affidavit and adjourned the hearing to December 17.

Telangana is going to the polls on December 7.

--IANS

ms/nir