Former Andhra Pradesh intelligence chief PSR Anjaneyulu was arrested in Hyderabad on Tuesday in connection with the alleged wrongful confinement of a Mumbai-based model and actor during the previous YSR Congress Party regime.
Following a change of leadership in the state, the senior IPS officer was suspended on 16 September last year, along with former Vijayawada police commissioner Kranti Rana Tata and former Vijayawada deputy commissioner Vishal Gunni, for their involvement in the alleged wrongful arrest and confinement of Kadambari Jethwani. They were suspended under Rule 3(1) of the All India Services (Discipline and Appeal) Rules, 1969.
Anjaneyulu, who was the DG of intelligence, is also under investigation by Guntur district police after former rebel YSR Congress Party MP and now Deputy Speaker K Raghu Rama Krishna Raju lodged an attempted murder complaint in July last year, alleging that after he was arrested on 14 May 2021 in Hyderabad, he was taken to the CID office in Guntur, where Anjaneyulu, former CID chief P V Sunil Kumar, and other officials allegedly manhandled him.
The former MP alleged that he was assaulted with belts and lathis and that he was also prevented from taking the medication prescribed after heart surgery four months earlier.
The actor Jethwani had also lodged a complaint in the first week of August, alleging that the three IPS officers acted in haste after YSRCP leader and film producer K V Vidyasagar Rao made accusations of forgery and extortion against her.
In her complaint, Jethwani alleged that police arrested her and her father and brought them to Vijayawada, where they were kept confined for three days before being produced in court. The court subsequently granted them bail after 40 days in jail.
She alleged that both of them were subjected to mental torture by the police officers.
The Andhra Pradesh Police chief ordered a probe after receiving her complaint. The three IPS officers were suspended based on the probe.
According to the probe report, IPS officers Kranthi Rana Tata and Vishal Gunni proceeded to arrest the actor allegedly on the direction of Anjaneyulu, even before producer Vidyasagar Rao had lodged a formal police complaint.
Acting on oral instructions, the officers allegedly travelled to Mumbai and arrested her in February 2024 without any written orders or sufficient evidence, the probe report stated.
The police investigation also claimed that the officers, now accused of harassing Jethwani, had "colluded" with YSRCP leader Kukkala Vidyasagar, who is the prime accused (A1) in the case registered after the TDP came to power.
Vidyasagar had filed a complaint against Jethwani on 2 February 2024, when the YSRCP was in power, accusing her of blackmail, extortion, and forgery in a land deal. Acting on this complaint, the three IPS officers arrested her along with her parents.
Police documents indicated that Anjaneyulu and the officers acted on the complaint without verifying its authenticity.
Flight tickets to Mumbai, where Jethwani resides, were booked on 1 February 2024 — a day before the FIR was registered — indicating that the arrest was pre-planned.
Jethwani and her parents were arrested in Mumbai on 3 February 2024 and remained in judicial custody for 40 days in the Vijayawada sub-jail, during which they were allegedly subjected to humiliation.
The actress, in her complaint, alleged that she and her family members were arrested based on documents in which her signature was forged. She said the police acted with unusual haste in arresting her, which reeked of a conspiracy.
She alleged that the police had acted high-handedly with her while she was in custody and that she was interrogated even at night.
She said that although she and her parents had not committed any crime, they spent 42 days in Vijayawada prison.
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