Hyderabad gets ‘encounter cop’ as new Commissioner of Police

In a major reshuffle in Telangana Police, encounter specialist and IPS VC Sajjanar has been appointed as the new Commissioner of Police for Hyderabad, replacing incumbent CV Anand, who was elevated to Special Chief Secretary (Home).

Sajjanar was the commissioner of the Cyberabad commissionerate when the rape and murder of a veterinarian rocked Telangana, and four of the accused were killed by police in an encounter. After the Supreme Court initiated a judicial inquiry into the case, the BRS government under K Chandrasekhar Rao had transferred Sajjanar to the post of managing director of Telangana Regional Transport Corporation.

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He was the superintendent of Warangal in 2008 when a similar encounter had resulted in the killing of three young men, accused in an acid attack case on two girls. After these incidents, Sajjanar had earned the sobriquet of ‘encounter cop’ in the state.

After taking over as the Chief Minister, A Revanth Reddy had appointed K Srinivas Reddy as the new CP of Hyderabad, only to reinstate CV Anand last year before Ganesh utsav. Anand had been the Hyderabad CP but was replaced by Sandeep Shandilya following orders from the Election Commission before the Assembly elections, 2023. B. Shivadhar Reddy, a 1994 batch officer, was recently appointed as DGP, prompting the change as CV Anand belongs to the 1991 batch.

Other transfers included Shikha Goel, director of the state cyber security bureau, who was posted as director general, vigilance and enforcement. She will retain the post of director of the state cyber security bureau as an additional charge. Y Nagi Reddy, DG (fire services) was posted as MD, TGRTC in place of Sajjanar. Vikram Singh Mann was posted as DG (fire services).

In another key reshuffle among IAS officers, agriculture secretary M Raghunandan Rao was replaced by Surendra Mohan amidst the urea crisis in the state. Sircilla collector Sandeep Kumar Jha was also replaced by M Haritha following a court directive and also after a local Congress MLA complained to the chief minister’s office over his failure to turn up on time for a key government function.