Karimnagar Collector moved out for telephone talk with BJP MP

Karimnagar: The Karimnagar Collector Sarfaraz Ahmed, whose audio conversation with BJP MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar went viral, and snowballed into a major controversy, has been moved out from the district. He has been appointed as Director - Prohibition and Excise in the existing vacancy relieving Senior IAS officer Somesh Kumar.

Weeks after leaked audio went viral, the officer was transferred on Monday and Gadwal Collector posted as the in-charge of Karimnagar.

Last month, a 1.35-minute phone conversation between Mr Sanjay Kumar and Sarfaraz Ahmed suggested that the parliamentarian was conspiring to get TRS Minister Gangula Kamalakar disqualified as MLA.

It is alleged that the saffron party MP was trying to get Gangula disqualified on the grounds that he had spent beyond the limits set by the Election Commission (EC) during the December 2018 Assembly elections.

The audio of the phone call that lasted 90 seconds created ripples in the local political circles. In the 2018 elections, Sanjay, who contested on a BJP ticket, had lost to Gangula Kamalakar in Karimnagar. Sanjay then fought the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and won. Collector Ahmed was the election officer at the time.

Ahmed confessed to the telephone talk with the MP and said that out of the eight-minute conversation, only an audio file of 90-second duration was released on social media.

The viral audio was brought to the notice of the party’s high command by Mr Gangula Kamalakar.

However, refuting these allegations, the Collector, who was asked to clarify, said that the original audio was of eight minutes but was trimmed to stir up the controversy. He demanded a probe into the affair.

The collector also met the Chief Secretary and submitted the original audio recording and supporting facts to back his claim.

It is also learnt, the transfer was also aimed at settling old scores between bureaucrats and some TRS MLAs.