A police official who has been chargesheeted by the ACB in the liquor scam was feted by the Warangal district administration as the “best officer” during Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday. Among the 30 “best police personnel” shortlisted by the Urban Police department, Warangal, the name of Subedari SI S. Ravi Kumar was also present. The ACB had named him along with 40 other police personnel in the liquor scam.
An ACB scrutiny report dated 21/01/2012 states that one “Sri Veera Swamy, PC of Subedari PS, has collected monthly mamool of Rs 6,000, Rs 7,000, and `6,000 for SI Ravi Kumar on 10/08/2011, 11/09/2011 and 10/10/2011 from Surabhi Wines counter, Subedari”. While this raises doubts over the criteria adopted by the Urban Police to select its best officials, anti-liquor activists see it as a gradual attempt by the state to bury the liquor scandal and to let the police officials implicated by the ACB go scot-free. “The state is setting a bad precedent. Though there are other police personnel who have collected more mamools, there is a chance that the issue of the 40 tainted cops figuring in the ACB report from Warangal would get a soft burial,” said an RTI activist.