For more than a month, senior IPS officer and former intelligence chief of Andhra Pradesh A B Venkateshwara Rao had fought a bitter legal battle against the Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy government for denying him permission to go abroad.
Venkateswara Rao sought for permission to travel abroad on earned leaves for 41 days and submitted two separate applications to the director general of police (DGP) and the chief secretary. However, his application was not considered by the state government.
Aggrieved by the same, the IPS officer moved the high court contending that his application was kept in pending for more than 21 days and as per the rules, if no decision was taken on the application of an All India Service (AIS) member for travel abroad within 21 days, the permission is deemed to have been given.
Finally, on Thursday last, Justice Gannamaneni Ramakrishna Prasad of the high court allowed him to travel abroad and suspended the memo issued by chief secretary rejecting his application for earned leave.
The court directed Venkateswara Rao to give an undertaking to the court about his travel dates and also file an affidavit upon his return and also to file an affidavit confirming his return upon arrival.
What was the urgency for the former intelligence chief to travel abroad? Well, he just wanted to chill out at the Telugu Association of North America (TANA) conference held at Philadelphia from July 8 to 10.
Within hours of getting permission from the court, Venkateshwar Rao flew down to the US to join his community colleagues at the TANA conference. He was found actively moving among the friends at TANA meet.
It is learnt, after the TANA meeting, the IPS officer is expected to go to the UK to spend some time with his children to settle there.
