The two-year-long tenure of K.V. Rajendranath Reddy as Commissioner of Police came to an end on Tuesday, with the government replacing him with P. Sitaramanjaneyulu, who recently hit the headlines in connection with the alleged police “highhandedness” on media persons on the campus of Osmania University. Both belong to the 1992 batch of the IPS.
The government also replaced Krishna district Superintendent of Police D. Ramakrishnaiah with P. Hari Kumar, a conferred IPS official of the 2000 batch, and Government Railway Police SP K. Venkateswara Rao with A.S. Khan, also from the conferred IPS ranks.
Mr. Reddy, who has been posted as DIG, Vigilance and Enforcement, joined duties here on April 2, 2008 and continued in the post until now, barring the brief period from December 21, 2009 to January 2, 2010 when he was placed under suspension following the “great escape” of fasting MP Lagadapati Rajagopal from the Government General Hospital during the agitation for unified State.
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A soft-spoken Mr. Reddy always steered clear of controversies and avoided coming under excessive media glare even while taking major decisions pertaining to policing in the city. The relatively peaceful conduct of general elections in the limits of the commissionerate, incident-free conduct of Dasara Navaratri festivities and the important role played by the police during the massive floods may be described as his achievements. “I look back at my tenure with a lot of satisfaction. I have been able to put in place a fool-proof bandobust plan that can be implemented without any changes. There is also a drop in crime rate with the number of offences reported being brought down from 2,000 to about 1,300 now. There is a corresponding increase of 60 per cent in recoveries. I also have the satisfaction of ensuring better surveillance at major places like bus station and major junctions, while the e-challan system is in final stages of implementation,” said Mr. Reddy, talking to
In contrast to Mr. Reddy, Mr. Sitaramanjaneyulu has always been in news wherever he was posted. His stint as Superintendent of Police of the neighbouring Guntur district under the TDP regime was marked by allegations that in the name of “counselling” he “ill-treated” political leaders and activists, including those of the ruling party, of Palnadu region.