The Andhra Pradesh high court on Tuesday concluded the hearing on the petition filed by senior IPS officer and former state intelligence chief A B Venkateshwara Rao seeking to quash the ACB case filed against him.
The high court reserved its judgement to a later date and directed that the interim order issued by the court in May would be in force till the pronouncement of final judgement.
On May 22, the high court issued interim orders, setting aside the suspension of Venkateswara Rao and directed the state government to reinstate him to the regular service.
The court also directed the government to pay his salary for the period of his suspension setting aside the directions given by the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) to file a case against the senior IPS officer.
In July, the YSRC government in Andhra Pradesh moved a special leave petition in the Supreme Court challenging the state high court’s order revoking the suspension of Venkateshwara Rao, but no relief was given to the government.
The Jagan government suspended Venkateshwar Rao on February 8, following a report that he had allegedly involved in irregularities during the purchase of surveillance equipment from Israeli firm RT Inflatable Objects and awarding the contract to Akasam Advanced on Company, owned by Rao’s son.
However, Rao knocked the doors of CAT challenging the state government’s suspension, but the CAT dismissed his petition and told the government to go ahead with the investigation by filing cases against the latter. He later moved the high court challenging the CAT order.
