Suspended officer A B Venkateshwara Rao had held press conference on claims regarding alleged purchase of Pegasus by Chandrababu Naidu government.
The Supreme Court Friday revoked the suspension of Andhra Pradesh IPS officer A B Venkateshwara Rao. An officer of DGP rank, Rao was Intelligence chief during the Telugu Desam Party regime, and is considered close to former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
A few days before the Assembly elections were held on April 11, 2019, the Election Commission of India had transferred Rao and asked him to report to headquarters. The YSR Congress Party leaders had complained to EC that some police officers were working in favour of the TDP government.
The Jagan Mohan Reddy government initiated an inquiry into alleged irregularities committed by Rao in the purchase of surveillance equipment from an Israeli firm. In the process, Rao allegedly shared critical information of national security with the firm.
The state government suspended Rao, a 1989 batch officer, in February 2020 under Rule 3(1) of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, and charged him with misconduct and indulging in acts which amount to treason. The Central Administrative Tribunal also upheld the suspension.
Rao approached the AP High Court which struck down the suspension but asked Rao not to interfere in the investigation against him. His suspension was extended by another six months in August 2020 by the state government.
In March, the AP Assembly passed a resolution to conduct a probe into whether the previous TDP regime had purchased the Israeli spyware Pegasus. The resolution came as the ruling YSRCP told the House it had taken note of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s comments that while her government had rejected an offer to buy Pegasus 4-5 years ago, the software had been acquired by Andhra Pradesh when TDP chief N Chandrababu was the CM.
Soon after this resolution was passed, Rao held a media conference in which he said that although the NSO Group had approached the state government to sell Pegasus, it was rejected. He said that as he was the Intelligence chief at that time it was his responsibility to respond to allegations and clear the air.
Taking note of his media conference, the state government issued a show cause notice to Rao on April 5 stating that he violated Rule 6 of AIS Rules as he did not take permission from the state government to address a media conference.
