IPS officer seeks VRS after being ignored for DGP post

 The senior-most Indian Police Service officer of Andhra Pradesh cadre P Gautam Kumar on Tuesday sought voluntary retirement from the service in the wake of the state government once again ignoring him for the post of Director General of Police.

Gautam Kumar, currently Principal Secretary (Home), belongs to the 1975 batch of the Indian Police Service.

He was overlooked for the post of DGP or Head of State Police Force three times in a row despite his seniority.

Kumar had challenged the government’s decision on all these occasions in the Central Administrative Tribunal(CAT) which ruled in his favour, finding fault with the manner in which the DGP’s appointment was done.

Twice earlier, the government obtained a stay from the High Court over the CAT order and let the incumbents continue in the DGP post and retire even before the final verdict was delivered.

In the last case where the then DGP K Aravinda Rao’s appointment was challenged, the High Court upheld Gautam’s contention that due procedure was not followed in the appointment. 

But by then Aravinda Rao had retired and the government appointed Dinesh Reddy of the 1977 batch as DGP.