Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police (DGP) Gautam Sawang has been transferred, and IPS officer Kasi Reddy VRN Reddy will now head the state police force. VRN Reddy, who is currently serving as the Director General of Police (Intelligence), has been placed in full additional charge of the post of Director General of Police (HoPF or Head of Police Force), until further orders. Sawang has been directed to report to the General Administration Department for further posting. A government order of the transfers and new posting was issued by the Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma on February 15, Tuesday.
VRN Reddy, who is a 1992 batch IPS officer, was recently promoted from the rank of Additional DGP to DGP, along with six other IPS officers, on December 31, 2021. He was appointed the Intelligence chief of Andhra Pradesh back in August 2020. Prior to that, Manish Kumar Sinha had served as the state Intelligence chief. He was transferred and posted as the Visakhapatnam Commissioner of Police, and was replaced by VRN Reddy, who has previously worked as Vijayawada Railway Superintendent of Police and as Vijayawada Commissioner of Police.
Sawang, who was posted as the DGP in May 2019 soon after the YSRCP government came to power, had been serving as Director General (Vigilance and Enforcement) at the time. At the same time, many officials hired by former Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu were replaced in the Chief Minister’s Office. Sawang has also previously worked as the Vijayawada Commissioner of Police.
During Sawang’s term as DGP, the opposition Telugu Desam Party has repeatedly accused the state police of acting on the behest of the ruling YSRCP. In October 2021, in an unusual move, Sawang had served legal notices to TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu as well as many other TDP leaders and media publications, alleging that they had made defamatory remarks in the Mundra port heroin case. Sawang, who was the DGP at the time, sought an unconditional apology in the notices for making “false claims” and “defamatory remarks” against the police department, and misleading the public.