HYDERABAD: Just retired director general of police Dinesh Reddy on Tuesday put chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy in the dock and launched a scathing attack on the latter for his anti-Telangana moves. The former cop chief said Kiran had pressured him to issue a public statement that the creation of Telangana would lead to intensification of Maoist activities. This was with a view to aborting a decision in favor of a separate state by raising fears. Dinesh also charged that the CM had reprimanded him for seeking additional central forces for containing expected trouble in Seemandhra in the run up to the Congress Working Committee’s T resolution at the end of July.
“During one of our visits to Delhi just before the CWC passed the T resolution, the media asked me about the possibility of increased Maoist activity in case Telangana was created. I responded by saying that this was a hypothetical question. The media interpreted my statement to say that Maoist activities would not increase if the state is divided. The CM questioned me and directed me to issue a statement saying that Maoist activities would intensify if Telangana is created. But I refused,” Dinesh Reddy said.
The former DGP – who was hopeful of an extension but did not get it – claimed that the state police wanted to deny permission for the huge public meeting convened by the striking Seemandhra employees at LB Stadium in Hyderabad on September 7, but alleged that Kiran Kumar pressured him to give permission. Though order was maintained during the event, the meeting had the potential of disrupting peace. “When Seemandhra advocates sought permission to hold a public meeting at Gachibowli in Cyberabad, we refused,” Dinesh Reddy said. “But the CM was angry with me for denying permission for the meeting which was refused because it was bang in the middle of the IT corridor. But the advocates asked how could I stop them from holding the meeting when the CM had already given the green signal,” he said.
Citing yet another example, Dinesh Reddy said after discussions with the Intelligence Bureau director and Union home secretary before July 30, it was decided to deploy 40 companies of paramilitary forces in the Seemandhra region. “However, Kiran Kumar was unhappy and asked me on whose instructions I had deployed central forces in the state. I responded by saying that this was done as a decision in favor of Telangana might be announced. Then the CM pulled me up by saying ‘Does a bureaucrat know or a politician know about what is best for the state?'”
The former DGP charged that CM’s brother Santosh Kumar Reddy meddled in the administration and alleged that the latter had approached him on several occasions to intervene in land deals and settle them in his (Santosh’s) favour. “But I refused to entertain his request.”
Dinesh Reddy was once Kiran’s favorite police officer and the CM had appointed him as the top cop by superseding many others. The relations worsened in the run up to the Telangana decision.
