Telangana relieves Anjani, Abhilasha; writes to EC seeking clarity on Abhishek

Hyderabad: Less than 24 hours after the ministry of home affairs (MHA) issued orders to the Telangana govt informing that three Andhra Pradesh cadre IPS officers' pleas to continue in Telangana were rejected, the state on Saturday issued orders relieving director general (DG)-rank officers Anjani Kumar and Abhilasha Bisht. The MHA's communication on Friday concluded the over 10-year-old cadre allocation controversy.
The state govt is yet to take a call on Karimnagar police commissioner Abhishek Mohanty as the model code of conduct (MCC) was in place due to the MLC election in Karimnagar. It is learnt that the state govt wrote a letter to the Election Commission of India (ECI) seeking clarification on whether he could be relieved or not.
"In pursuance of the orders issued by the MHA, the govt hereby relieves Anjani Kumar, IPS (1990), director-general of police and chairman, Road Safety Authority, with immediate effect, to enable him to join Andhra Pradesh," chief secretary Santhi Kumari said in the order. A similar order was given in the case of Abhilasha too.
Though there was anticipation that the officers would knock the doors of Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT), none approached the tribunal on Saturday. In the MHA order sent to the Telangana govt on Friday night, in the case of Anjani Kumar, it was mentioned that his plea to permit him to continue in the Telangana cadre was rejected citing various reasons.
"Khandekar committee noted that the personal ground mentioned has no reference to cadre allocation guidelines as formulated by the Pratyush Sinha committee. If he was considered on the ground of residuary service of one and a half years, then the issue of residuary service of less than 3 or 4 years and so on will easily crop up and the same cannot be addressed. It is highlighted that Somesh Kumar (former chief secretary of Telangana) was allocated to the AP cadre despite having little time before retirement, by the High Court in its order Jan 10, 2023," an MHA officer said.
As a fallout of the MHA's order, 1995 batch IPS officers Swati Lakra, VV Srinivas Rao, and Mahesh Bhagwat would become eligible to get elevated to DG rank.
After united Andhra Pradesh was bifurcated in 2014, some All India Services (AIS) officers, both IAS and IPS, who were allocated to the AP cadre by the Union govt, refused to go and continued their service in Telangana by obtaining temporary relief from the CAT. After Somesh Kumar sufered a setback in 2023, he quit service after reporting in AP. He later joined as an advisor to the Telangana govt during the BRS tenure.
In Oct 2024, based on the Telangana high court order, four AP cadre IAS officers — Amrapali Kata, Ronald Rose, Vakati Karuna, and Vani Prasad — working in Telangana were asked to report to AP. Three IAS officers — Gummella Srijana, Sivasankar Lotheti, and Chevvuru Hari Kiran — working in AP, but originally allotted to Telangana, were relieved by the AP govt and they reported to Telangana.