Andhra: SIT chief out, his boss wants leave

HYDERABAD: ACB additional director K Sreenivasa Reddy was finally relieved from duties, but his boss and ACB director general D Boobathi Babu is learnt to have applied for long leave. Chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi is understood to have accepted it.Sreenivasa Reddy was transferred on Wednesday midnight, but Boobathi Babu did not relieve him on the grounds that the probe he was supervising as SIT chief might be hampered.Chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy on Thursday night had a meeting with DGP V Dinesh Reddy and chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi and asked them to be tough with both Reddy and Boobathi. Dwivedi later is reported to have issued memos to both of them with the result that Reddy was relieved from duties by Friday afternoon. He will take over as IG, Coastal Security.Sreenivasa Reddy told newsmen he was ‘satisfied’ with the probe and that ‘it will not be hampered’. “There are honest officers in the ACB and the new incumbent (Shivdhar Reddy) will study the case and the probe will proceed,” he said. He, however, refused to comment whether political reasons were behind his transfer.