The Hindu : Front Page : Show cause notices to 3 IPS officers

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Oct 13, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Front Page

Front Page

Show cause notices to 3 IPS officers

K. Srinivas Reddy

Officials asked why they should not be stripped off their gallantry medals

HYDERABAD: The State government has served show cause notices on three senior IPS officers asking them why they should not be stripped off the gallantry medals conferred on them for their anti-extremist work, nearly nine years ago.

The three officers were selected for gallantry medals for their involvement in Koyyur encounter of Karimnagar district in which three important Maoist leaders were killed in 1999.

The encounter, in which three Central Committee members of the erstwhile CPI (ML) People’s War (PW) were killed, has always been a most contentious issue with the Maoists maintaining that the leaders were picked up in Bangalore and shot dead in Koyyur.

The notices issued last week, sources indicated, said the three officers were not present physically at the time of the alleged gun battle that took place on December 2, 1999 between 6.30 and 7.05 a.m. in Tadicherla police station limits and yet claimed the gallantry medals.

Legendary leaders

The encounter, which saw the killing of three legendary naxalite leaders, Nalla Adi Reddy alias Shyam,

Yerramreddy Santosh Reddy (Mahesh) and Seelam Naresh (Murali), was the beginning of the fall of the revolutionary movement in North Telangana, then a role model for the Maoist movement.

The naxalites had in fact changed their strategies and launched the People’s Liberation Guerrilla Army (PLGA) on the first anniversary of Koyyur encounter, ushering in a decisive change in the revolutionary movement.

The issue of notices has literally stirred a hornet’s nest in the State’s police circles at a time when the State police force is grappling to find its moorings in the anti-extremist warfare, especially after the June 29 Balimela ambush in Orissa in which 38 Greyhounds personnel were killed by Maoists.

Squabbles

Insiders say squabbles among the IPS circles seemed to have cast their shadow on the force when Maoists are making determined efforts to stage a return, especially in districts bordering Orissa and Chhattisgarh.

The Maoist strategy, as declared in circular 3/2001 is to ‘encash’ on the internal contradictions among the police to strengthen the revolutionary movement.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Front Page