Dismissing the allegations that the arrest of the Vizag police team in Rajasthan was vindictive action by the Rajasthan police as the AP police had killed a suspect from that State in an alleged encounter in a dacoity case, N. Sambasiva Rao, DGP, said on Thursday their department would go all out to protect the policemen if they were not involved in corruption.
Mr. Rao told newsmen here that the four policemen had gone to Rajasthan in connection with the recovery of stolen gold in a robbery.
They were arrested by the ACB of Rajasthan for “demanding and accepting bribe” from the accused in the case.
“The police team spoke to me and claimed that they are framed by the ACB when they were recovering the stolen property and cash from the accused,” the DGP said.
Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu had already spoken to his Rajasthan counterpart to ascertain the facts, he added.
The AP police department would take all steps to safeguard the morale of the police force and chalk out plans to bring back the team. “If we find them guilty, we are ready to initiate departmental action against them,” Mr. Rao said. Terming it a bad incident, the DGP said it would demoralise the State police, considered the best police force in the country.
To a question on the Gedela Raju and K. Padmalatha murder cases in Vizag, the DGP said the AP police had done a great job by nabbing a DSP rank officer and now a special team had been formed to investigate the circumstances under which Padmalatha, daughter of former Nakkapalli MLA K. Nookaraju, had died.
