'IN AP, ACTING 'INTEL CHIEF' CANNOT ENTER HER OFFICE'

By Parvati Kalyan / Hyderabad

Strange things are happening in Andhra Pradesh’s police intelligence setup. In the absence of intelligence chief Mahender Reddy who has gone on leave, additional director general of police A R Anuradha has been appointed temporary chief. But she has been told not to enter the office of the intelligence bureau. “How can she function as the chief if she is not allowed entry into her office?” asked a senior police officer. 
    
According to stories doing the rounds in the police headquarters, Mahender Reddy who has gone to the US on 10 days leave did not want to give charge to anybody outside the intelligence set-up on the grounds that his department deals with ‘secret’ matters that could not be shared with other police officers.
However, director general of police Dinesh Reddy handed over charge to Anuradha on the grounds that the number two in the intelligence set-up - N Balasubramanyam – is chargesheeted – in the Sohrabuddin Sheikh case. Sources say that the moment Mahender heard this, he called up Dinesh Reddy and prevailed upon him to not allow Anuradha to go to the intelligence office. “In effect, this means that Balasubramanyam will be the boss in the absence of the chief,” a senior police officer told INN. The intelligence bureau operates from a huge office with a glass façade in the Lakdi-ka-pul area of the city about half a kilometre from the state police headquarters. 
    
He added that the intelligence bureau has emerged as a shadowy organization which is part of the police set-up, but that is increasingly showing signs of insulating itself. They said that the trend started from the time of Arvind Rao who was first intelligence chief and then director general of police. “Nobody really knows what is happening within the bureau, but they have enormous funding and operate outside the state also,” police officers told INN. “It is trying to become like the Intelligence Bureau at the Centre with no equivalent mandate,” the officers added. 
    
Why Dinesh Reddy agreed to comply with the request of Mahender Reddy is not known, but the obvious implication is that even the police chief cannot prevail over the intelligence chief – in spite of being many years senior to him. Mahender Reddy who is of the rank of additional director general of police joined the intelligence bureau in 2009 and Balasubramanyam a year later.