AP constitutes SIT to probe post-poll violence; senior IPS officer Vineet Brijlal made SIT chief

Amaravati: The State Government on Friday appointed senior IPS officer Vineet Brijlal as the head of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) to review the widespread incidents of poll violence that occurred on May 13, the day of polling in AP, and the following days.

Law and order issues caused severe unrest in Palnadu, Anantapur and Tirupati districts after clashes erupted between YSRCP and TDP cadres, which also led to many being injured.

The SIT was constituted as per directives issued to AP chief secretary KS Jawahar Reddy and director-general of police (DGP) Harish Kumar Gupta during their appearance before the Election Commission of India (ECI) in New Delhi on Thursday. The SIT will supervise the investigation being conducted by concerned jurisdictional IOs in the cases, falling under SIT purview.

The DGP said that the following officers were nominated in the SIT as members: ACB SP Rama Devi, additional SP ACB Soumya Latha, ACB DSP (Srikakulam) Ramana Murthy, CID DSP P Srinivasulu, ACB DSP (Ongole) Valluri Srinivasa Rao, ACB DSP (Tirupati) Ravi Manohara Chary, Guntur Range VR inspector V Bhushanam, Visakhapatnam Intelligence inspector K Venkat Rao, ACB inspectors Rama Krishna and GL Srinivas, Ongole PTC inspector Moin, Anantapur ACB inspector N Prabhakar and ACB inspector Siva Prasad.

Harish Kumar Gupta further said that the head of the SIT may co-opt any other officer/legal adviser as per the situation. The SIT will recommend to the concerned IO, for additional appropriate sections of law in each case to be updated wherever needed.

A compliance report will be submitted in two days to the ECI and the SIT will also make recommendations to get fresh FlRs registered, wherever needed and any other tasks, which may be required to complete the SIT mandate, he said.