EC removes three Andhra police officials from poll duty

Amaravati: The Election Commission on Tuesday transferred three top police officials of Andhra Pradesh and directed that they should not be assigned any election related work.

The poll panel directed that Director General of Intelligence A. B. Venkateswara Rao be transferred forthwith and attached to the police headquarters. He was asked to hand over charge to senior most officer in his office.

The Election Commission also transferred Srikakulam Superintendent of Police Venkata Ratnam and Kadapa Superintendent of Police Rahul Dev Sharma. They were also attached to the police headquarters and were directed to hand over the charge to the officers immediate below their rank. None of these officers will be assigned any election related works till completion of current elections, the poll panel said.

The Election Commission took the action, following a complaint by YSR Congress Party that they were favouring the ruling Telugu Desam Party. 

The opposition party had also made allegations against Sharma with regard to the handling of murder case of former minister and MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy, who was uncle of YSRCP chief Y. S. Jaganmohan Reddy.