Andhra govt extends IPS officer Sunil Kumar's suspension once again

Amaravati, Aug 26 (PTI) Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday extended the suspension of senior IPS officer PV Sunil Kumar once again by another six months, alleging that he could 'influence' the cases registered against him.

The extension comes in the backdrop of the state government initiating 'disciplinary action' and setting in motion a set of elaborate articles of charge against the suspended officer for allegedly undertaking foreign visits without permission during the previous YSRCP regime and other cases.

"Government hereby order that suspension period of PV Sunil Kumar, IPS (1993) shall extend for a further period of 180 days, up to February 24, 2026 or till further orders," said Chief Secretary K Vijayanand in a government order (GO).

A review committee met on August 22 to review Kumar's suspension and noted that the allegations of misuse of Agri-gold relief funds enquiry is being conducted by the ACB, which is pending for examination of witnesses and collection of documents from various departments.

Likewise, it observed that the case registered against Kumar in the alleged custodial torture case of former Narasapuram MP and current Undi MLA K Raghurama Krishna Raju is under investigation and in the process of uncovering and eliciting further facts associated with it.

Vijayanand said the probe in Raju's case is at the stage of "identifying the weapons used in the commission of offence, unearthing the larger conspiracy behind the custodial torture and the efforts that were made to suppress the facts of custodial torture." The review committee has also noted that disciplinary proceedings are pending against Kumar in 'another case', he said.

Considering this backdrop, the chief secretary said the review committee opined that revoking suspension at this point of time will only enable the member of service (Kumar) to "tamper the evidence and influence the process of enquiry and investigation." Hence, it recommended the extension of Kumar's suspension for a further period of 180 days, Vijayanand added. PTI STH KH