Guntur court issues arrest warrant against IPS officer Naik

Vijayawada: The Guntur mobile court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant against Bihar cadre IPS officer M Sunil Kumar Naik in the alleged custodial torture of former MP K Raghurama Krishna Raju, who is now Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly.

The court issued the warrant on a petition filed by the police.

Guntur police had last year issued notice to the IPS officer, directing him to appear for questioning in connection with the case booked against him and others.

As the officer failed to respond to the notice, a police team recently went to Patna to arrest him.

Sunil Kumar Naik, who is the director of fire services of Bihar, was taken into custody at his residence in Patna on Monday.

It was alleged that the police entered Naik’s house by scaling the wall and took him into custody without producing the arrest warrant, though he insisted they provide it.

He was produced in a local court seeking permission to shift him to Andhra Pradesh, but the court rejected the plea for his transit remand on the ground that the Andhra Pradesh Police did not follow the due inter-state arrest procedure.

With the Guntur court issuing an arrest warrant, the police team is likely to go to Bihar again to take the IPS officer into custody.

Raghurama Krishna Raju was allegedly tortured in police custody in 2021 when the YSRCP was in power.

Naik, who served on deputation as the DIG of the A.P Crime Investigation Department (CID) at that time, is named as Accused No 7 in the case registered in the Nagarampalem police station in Guntur. After the change of government in 2024, Naik returned to Bihar.

Meanwhile, the IPS officer approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court for anticipatory bail, denying any involvement in the custodial torture of the former MP.