Hyderabad: The Election Commission (EC) has ordered the suspension of the director-general of police (DGP) and head of police force (HoPF) in Telangana, Anjani Kumar, and issued show cause notices to two other senior IPS officers, Sanjay Kumar Jain and Mahesh Muralidhar Bhagwat, for a violation of the model code of conduct.The EC has asked the state government, represented by the chief secretary, to give charge of the post of DGP immediately to the next senior-most officer after Anjani Kumar.It is said that the EC took a serious view of the matter as there was malafide intention on the part of the police officers to seek favour from Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) president Revanth Reddy.Ravi Gupta. Photo: Special arrangement.Ravi Gupta, a 1990 batch officer, has been given full additional charge as DGP and HoPF, according to an order issued by chief secretary A. Santhi Kumari. Gupta is presently director-general of the Anti-Corruption Bureau.Kumar, Jain and Bhagwat had rushed to the Reddy’s residence when the counting of votes for the Telangana assembly elections was underway. The Congress party was leading in the early trends and Reddy is projected to be the next chief minister.#WATCH | Telangana DGP Anjani Kumar and other Police officials arrive at the residence of state Congress president Revanth Reddy in Hyderabad.The party is leading on 65 of the total 119 seats in the state, ruling BRS is leading on 38 seats. pic.twitter.com/JIfMXLuGcu— ANI (@ANI) December 3, 2023The police officers’ visit raised a strong indication in the public mind that it was all over for the ruling Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS), as the police are generally equipped with intelligence inputs on polling trends.They presented bouquets to Reddy and congratulated him.Top Telangana police officers DGP Anjani Kumar, Mahesh Bhagwat and Sanjay Kumar Jain congratulate TPCC chief A Revanth Reddy on the Congress party’s success. pic.twitter.com/IAIXxMTAfj— The Siasat Daily (@TheSiasatDaily) December 3, 2023A press release by the DGP’s office hours later said the officers were invited by Reddy to discuss security arrangements for the Congress government’s swearing-in ceremony at the Lal Bahadur stadium on Monday (December 4).The Congress leader wanted elaborate arrangements as several chief ministers, former chief ministers and senior leaders from Delhi are expected to attend the event.The release added that the DGP assured to Reddy the provision of two-plus-two police security officers to the newly elected Congress MLAs and a higher scale of security to senior leaders depending on threat perception.Interestingly, Kumar received the Election Commission’s award for best election practices as Hyderabad’s police commissioner in 2020. He received the award from the then-President Ramnath Kovind.He is fighting a case in the high court challenging his cadre allotment to Andhra Pradesh. He based his argument on the continuation of the then-chief secretary Somesh Kumar in Telangana, though the latter too was allotted to Andhra Pradesh.Jain and Bhagwat are nodal officers for the present elections on law and order. While Jain is additional director-general of police (law and order), Bhagwat is director-general of the Crime Investigation Department.