The High Court on Tuesday ordered a CBI probe against a retired police officer for allegedly possessing disproportionate assets worth more than Rs 10 crore. The investigation must be entrusted to an officer not below the rank of an SP in the Central Bureau of Investigation, it noted.
Justice B Chandra Kumar allowed a petition filed in 2008 by G Durga Rao, a retired employee of vigilance and enforcement cell in the Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, seeking directions to the authorities to register a criminal case against G Anjaiah, retired additional superintendent of police in V&E, MCH.
The petitioner alleged that Anjaiah was suspended three times on corruption charges when he was working as the Additional SP in the MCH and at the time of retirement he owned 35 acres of agriculture land in Medak district, 15 acres at Shadnagar and Medchal, two-storeyed building at Begumpet and several other properties in the state capital. K Ravinder Reddy, the then inspector of police, ACB, who conducted an enquiry said that the allegations were incorrect.
The petitioner alleged that Anjaiah had tampered with his date of birth and got promoted as additional SP. When the issue was reported in the media, he applied for voluntary retirement and the government allowed him to retire from service without making any enquiry, he pointed out.
On the other hand, Anjaiah claimed that the allegations made against him by the petitioner were enquired into by the ACB and it was revealed that there was no truth in the allegations and that the state government also dropped further action against him.
The judge observed that the enquiry conducted by the said inspector was one-sided and that it cannot be said to be a full-fledged enquiry. The enquiry reports were also not submitted to the court, he said. While allowing the petition, the judge directed the joint director of the CBI, Hyderabad, to register a case against Anjaiah and conduct a thorough investigation.