Telangana High Court directs IT Grids director to respond to Telangana police notice

IT Grids director had sought for the case registered against him to be quashed and for the ongoing investigation to be transferred to Andhra Pradesh.
Telangana High Court. (File photo)
Telangana High Court. (File photo)

HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Monday refused to grant a stay on all proceedings in the case registered against IT Grids director Ashok Dakavaram by State police. Dakavaram is alleged to have stolen data pertaining to voters and beneficiaries of various government schemes in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh. He is the prime suspect in the case. A Special Investigation Team (SIT) has been constituted by the State government to probe his role and had also launched a manhunt to trace him. ​

Dakavaram had sought for the case registered against him to be quashed and for the ongoing investigation to be transferred to Andhra Pradesh. He asked for all proceedings, including his arrest, to have stayed. 

State public prosecutor C Pratap Reddy told the Court: “The petitioner is an accused in the case, has been evading arrest and has not responded to the notice issued by police.” However, he assured the Court that Dakavaram would not be arrested as long as he responded to the notice. 

Later, disputing the submissions made by the public prosecutor, Dakavaram’s counsel told the Court that State police couldn’t register cases against IT Grids solely on the basis of territorial jurisdiction. “Even the complainant has admitted that the data that was allegedly stolen belonged to AP and not Telangana. Hence, the case should be transferred to AP. However, refusing to consider the plea, the Court directed Dakavaram to respond to the police notice and adjourned the matter to March 20 for further hearing.

SIT serves fresh notices to CEO of IT Grids

Special Investigation Team (SIT) — probing the IT Grids India Pvt Ltd data theft case — have served fresh notices to CEO Dakavaram Ashok asking him to appear before it at the Goshamahal office on March 13. Earlier, the Madhapur police had served notices to Ashok asking him to appear before the investigators for questioning him in connection with the data theft case. However, Ashok failed to attend the same and filed a petition before the court instead, seeking the FIR registered against him to be quashed. 

Hours after the court asked Ashok to respond to the notices served by police, the SIT officials have served notices by pasting the same at his office on Monday evening. In the notice, the SIT officials asked the CEO of IT Grids to appear before the officials for questioning. 

The SIT believes that Ashok was aware of the data theft offence as he conducted several surveys on previous elections, which is why they are likely to question him. A close vigil is also being kept on the movements of CEO Ashok, by the SIT officials. If Ashok does not appear before the SIT on the said date, officials are likely to take stern action against him.

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