AP High Court reserves order on AB Venkateswara Rao's petition

Nelapadu (Amaravati): The single judge bench of Justice M Satyanarayana Murthy on Tuesday reserved the order on the writ petition filed by senior police officer A B Venkateswara Rao seeking protection against the arrest by the police.

B Adinarayana Rao, counsel for petitioner Venkateswara Rao, former intelligence chief, informed the High Court that the petition has a fundamental right to dignity, privacy under Article 21 of the Constitution. He said that the apprehension of the petitioner that police will take high-handed action was genuine. The senior counsel said that some junior IPS officers, with selfish motives and in an attempt to please the Chief Minister, are out to create prejudice against the petitioner. He quoted a tweet by a senior IAS officer from the CMO as to how the IAS and the IPS officers were behaving.

The counsel said that the petitioner does not want a blanket protection and the court may impose conditions. He assured the court that the petitioner will not interfere with the witnesses and course of investigation.

Advocate General Sriram Subrahmanyam in his argument stated that the writ petition was clearly an abuse of process of law. Unwarranted and unverified allegations are made against the IPS officers without any basis and facts, he pointed out.

The Advocate General also said that when the petitioner says that the IPS officers wanted to please the government, perhaps it was the conscience of the petitioner speaking.

After hearing the arguments, the single judge bench extended the interim order and reserved the final order.

It may be recalled that Jagan Mohan Reddy had accused Rao of serious misconduct in the process of procuring security equipment. Anti-Corruption Bureau has registered a case and is investigating.