Choice of probe officer limited

HYDERABAD: With the High Court directing that a probe into the mutual allegations being levelled by DGP V Dinesh Reddy and Godavari Valley Authority chairman Umesh Kumar be conducted by an officer senior to them, the state government has limited options.It may, in all likelihood, appoint senior IPS officer P Gautam Kumar to perform the enquiry. However, that option too is fraught with complications.The High Court on Wednesday directed chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi to appoint an enquiry officer from the ranks of the IAS or IPS, and submit a report within four months. But he or she must be senior to the Dinesh Reddy and Umesh Kumar, both belonging to the 1977 batch of IPS.AP Road Safety Authority chairman A Sivasankar would be senior to Dinesh Reddy and Umesh Kumar but he belongs to the same batch (1977) as the duelling duo. Hence,  government sources say he is not a likely candidate.Therefore, the government would have to look for IPS officers from the 1976 or 1975 batches. Since there is no serving officer from 1976, the scanner will move to 1975 from which batch there are two officers still in service: Gautam Kumar and KR Nandan. However, Nandan will be retiring by this month-end and therefore the chances of him being appointed are bleak.The ball will then land in the court of Gautam Kumar, presently principal secretary (home). But he too is involved in a legal battle with Dinesh Reddy as he has filed a petition in the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) challenging the appointment of the latter as DGP. He retires in October.In case the government decides to look at the IAS for the probe officer -- the possibility of which appears remote because of the running feud between the two fraternities -- then the choice would be between chief secretary Pankaj Dwivedi himself and Bhale Rao, both from the 1975 batch of IAS. But both will retire in June.Minnie Mathew (1976) would be the next possibility. But she is presently posted to the key office of chief commissioner land administration (CLA), so the government may not disturb her.Sources, however, said whoever is appointed to conduct the probe may not have a lengthy task at hand. As far as the assets of Umesh Kumar are concerned, all information is available in the Annual Property Returns (APR) filed by him. Even otherwise, all documents relating to his properties are available with the government. ‘’The enquiry officer will have to go into the details of the transactions, which will not be a difficult task,’’ sources said.Coming to Dinesh Reddy, the enquiry officer is likely to go inspect documents produced in court by Umesh Kumar’s counsel purporting to show benami properties owned by Dinesh Reddy’s wife. Also, the fact as to why Dinesh Reddy did not list his properties in his APR will be looked into.With regard to the other aspect of the enquiry like the alleged irregularities committed by Umesh Kumar while he was was additional DGP (provisioning and logistics), the then DGP K Aravinda Rao has already submitted a report to the government, which the enquiry officer may analyse again.