Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Police Tuesday arrested senior IPS officer P.S.R. Anjaneyulu, the state intelligence chief during Jagan Mohan Reddy’s government, in connection with a case involving Mumbai actor Kadambari Jethwani.
The Crime Investigation Department (CID), which is probing the case, took custody of Anjaneyulu Tuesday morning from Hyderabad. He is expected to be produced before a court in Vijayawada later in the day.
Anjaneyulu, a Director General of Police (DGP) rank IPS officer of the 1992 batch, deemed to be close to former CM Jagan, has been without a posting, along with several other such IPS officers, since Chandrababu Naidu came to power in June last year.
The YSR Congress Party called PSR’s arrest “yet another alarming misuse of state power”. In a statement shared with media, the party said the arrest was “part of the continued political vendetta by the TDP-led coalition, targeting serving IPS officers too”.
The Mumbai-based actor was allegedly harassed with a false land deal case lodged against her and later arrested in February 2024, along with her elderly parents—her father is a retired Army man and her mother a former RBI official.
They were held in jail for over 40 days.
She was also allegedly pressured to withdraw or compromise on rape charges against a Mumbai-based industrialist, whose firm is executing a steel plant project in Andhra Pradesh, and who is said to have a cordial relationship with Jagan.
On 28 December, 2023, the industrialist had visited Reddy at his Tadepalli camp office. At the time, officials stated that the purpose of the meeting was to update the chief minister on the status of the Kadapa Steel Plant.
A steel plant in Kadapa, a YSR stronghold, was proposed in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act of 2014. However, the Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) lost interest in the plan by 2018 citing feasibility issues.
In 2019, YSR Steel Corporation Limited was formed by Jagan as a fully-owned undertaking of the government of Andhra Pradesh to set up a 3 million tonnes per annum steel plant in Kadapa district. He laid the foundation stone for the plant in December 2019. However, with the project not progressing, the YSRCP government roped in private firms to set up the plant in association with AP government.
The Kadapa steel plant has been an emotive election issue on YSR’s home-turf.
So, in 2023, the Jagan government partnered with the Mumbai-based firm to set up the plant in collaboration with the Andhra Pradesh government. Reddy laid the foundation for the Rs 8,800 crore greenfield plant for the second time in February 2023.
In September 2024, the Naidu-led NDA government in the state suspended three IPS officers, including Anjaneyulu, in connection with Jethwani’s case.
Anjaneyulu, former Vijayawada police commissioner Kanthi Rana Tata (IPS 2004), and former Vijayawada deputy commissioner of police Vishal Gunni (IPS 2010) were suspended under Rule 3 (1) of All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969, for “misconduct” and “dereliction of duty”.
The suspension orders said Tata and Gunni arrested the actor in Mumbai on oral orders from Anjaneyulu, the intelligence chief at the time, before a complaint was lodged against her.
Tata and Gunni, sources said, procured anticipatory bail from the Andhra Pradesh High Court in the matter.
Tata and Gunni are also among the several officers awaiting postings under the TDP government. The three officers are perceived as being close to the YSRCP. In Jethwani’s case, they were reportedly acting on the direction of top leaders to clear the name of the prominent industrialist.
Also Read: Why Andhra govt suspended 3 IPS officers for actor Kadambari Jethwani’s arrest and who they are
‘Political vendetta against in-service officers’
The YSRCP Tuesday said PSR’s arrest was yet another instance proving “that the AP police machinery is operating under the political control and direction of minister Nara Lokesh and CM Chandrababu Naidu”.
“Anjaneyulu is a highly respected officer who eradicated rowdyism in cities like Guntur. He is now being unjustly targeted merely for having served under the previous YSRCP government,” former YSRCP minister Ambati Rambabu told reporters. “The case is driven purely by personal and political vendetta. It is also intended to deflect the public attention from the Naidu government’s land allotment to dubious firms and etc. scams.”
Ambati charged the Naidu regime with starting a new trend of targeting IPS officers, thereby demoralising the cadre. “The arrest sends a dangerous and chilling message to civil servants and police officers across the state to either submit to the political whims of the TDP leadership or prepare to be humiliated and criminalised.”
YSRCP sources said that in the very same case, the prime accused, Kukkala Vidyasagar, has already been granted bail by the court.
“Yet, Anjaneyulu has been singled out and arrested in a manner that reeks of political vengeance rather than any genuine legal necessity,” said the YSRCP functionary
‘Misconduct and dereliction of duty’
In August, two months after the YSRCP was defeated and the TDP-led alliance came to power, Jethwani, a physician by training, former Miss Gujarat and an actress, approached the Andhra Pradesh Police in Vijayawada.
In her complaint, she accused top police officials and others of conspiring with local businessman and YSRCP leader Kukkala Vidyasagar to falsely accuse her of forgery and extortion in a land deal case in Andhra Pradesh, resulting in a case being registered against her by the Ibrahimpatnam Police near Vijayawada.
The three separate suspension orders issued in September by then state Chief Secretary Neerabh Kumar Prasad, copies of which ThePrint has accessed, state that “there is prima facie evidence (against the officers) and that the disciplinary proceedings are warranted for grave misconduct and dereliction of duty”.
The decision to suspend the IPS officers was based on a detailed inquiry report received from the Commissioner of Police, Vijayawada, “regarding allegations on investigation in Crime No. 90/2024 u/s 384,385,386,388,420,457,468,471 r/w 12 (B) IPC against an actress from Mumbai Kum. Kadambari Narendra Kumari Jethwani”.
The sections relate to extortion, forgery and cheating.
The orders said that on 31 January, 2024, Anjaneyulu called Tata and Gunni to the Chief Minister’s Office and instructed them to arrest Jethwani, “although no crime has been registered in this regard as on that date”.
Records show that the FIR against Jethwani was registered on 2 February 2024 morning.
“Anjaneyulu initiated and pushed the case based on incomplete information, abusing his authority and official position and played a key role in fast-tracking the investigation without adequate scrutiny, which is nothing but connivance and misuse of power. His acts amount to grave misconduct, misuse of official position and dereliction of duty,” his suspension orders state.
(Edited by Sanya Mathur)
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whats stopping you to name the company prasad its JSW steel. no one from national media is naming the company. i reckon both the bjp-cong are in nexus with this.