HC interim direction to continue BR vehicle to R.S. Praveen Kumar

The Telangana High Court on Tuesday directed the State government not to recall the Bullet Resistant four-wheeler provided to former IPS officer and BRS leader R.S. Praveen Kumar. 

Justice T. Madhavi Devi, passing interim directions in a writ petition filed by Praveen Kumar who took voluntarily retirement in the rank of Additional Director General of Police before joining politics, directed the Government Pleader for Home to secure instructions in the matter. The former police officer challenged withdrawal of the BR vehicle allotted to him without conducting fresh threat assessment. 

He contended that the government had not issued any notice to him before withdrawing the vehicle and scaling down the security provided to him. No opportunity was afforded to the petitioner to explain his case, the petitioner’s counsel said. The scaling down of security and withdrawal of the vehicle was done even as there was documented evidence of continued threat perception from the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) to him, the counsel argued. 

The petitioner said the threat perception to him was never speculative but based on repeated intelligence inputs collected over past several years. In 2002, the intelligence agencies found that Maoists targeted him. They identified the petitioner as one of their principal enemies. Praveen Kumar served as Greyhounds Assault Commander in 1998, Additional Superintendent of Police of Bellampally in Adilabad district during 1998-99, Additional SP in Warangal during 1999-2001 and Karimnagar SP from 2001 to 2004. 

The Maoist movement was at its peak during those periods, the petitioner said. In 2019, the intelligence wing officially communicated that Maoist cadre did a reconnaissance of his office and residence to carry out attacks on him. The matter was posted to Tuesday for next hearing.