The Election Commission of India (ECI) has approved the transfer of Palnadu District Collector and Tirupati Superintendent of Police (SP) for their failure to contain violence in their respective districts. Violence erupted in parts of Andhra Pradesh during and after the fourth phase of polling for the 2024 general election which was held on May 13. The state went for simultaneous elections to the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly on that day. 

Along with the transfer of Palnadu District Collector Siva Sankar Lotheti and Tirupati SP  Krishnakanth, the SPs of Palnadu and Anantapur districts were suspended. The decision was taken on Thursday, May 16, by the ECI following a meeting with Chief Secretary KS Jawahar Reddy and Director General of Police Harish Kumar Gupta. The two senior bureaucrats were earlier summoned by the ECI regarding the post-poll violence in several parts of Andhra Pradesh. 

The ECI also suspended 12 police officers from the violence-hit districts of Palnadu, Anantapur and Tirupati. All the suspended and transferred officials will face a departmental enquiry, as per the notice issued by the ECI. 

Further, a Special Investigation Team has been tasked with investigating these cases and submit a report within two days. The ECI has directed the state government to update the FIRs with appropriate sections of the Indian Penal Code and other relevant statutory provisions. 

On May 16, the Chief Secretary and the DGP were summoned to the ECI’s office in New Delhi to ‘personally explain’ reasons for failure of administration to contain post poll violence in the state. Several incidents of violence were reported in Annamaya, Chittoor, Palnadu, Guntur, Nandyal, Anantapur, and Tirupati districts on the polling day. 

The violence continued to take place even after the polling, forcing police to impose section 144 of the Indian Penal Code in several parts of the districts. 

In the violence, EVMs were also damaged. “Incidents were also reported before the poll involving assault, setting the property/office of the opposite party on fire, threatening, damaging of the campaign vehicles, stone pelting etc,” the ECI said.