Amaravati, February 26 – A court in Andhra Pradesh issued an arrest warrant on Thursday against M. Sunil Kumar Naik, an IPS officer serving in Bihar, in connection with the alleged custodial torture of former Member of Parliament K. Raghu Ramakrishna Raju, who is now the Deputy Speaker of the state Assembly.
The mobile court in Guntur issued the arrest warrant based on a petition filed by the police.
The Guntur police had previously issued a notice to Naik, directing him to appear for questioning in connection with the case filed against him and others.
As Naik failed to respond to the notice, a police team recently went to Patna to arrest him.
Sunil Kumar Naik, who is the Director of Fire Services in Bihar, was taken into custody at his residence in Patna on Monday.
It was alleged that the police entered Naik's house by scaling the wall and took him into custody without producing the arrest warrant, though he insisted they provide it.
He was produced in a local court seeking permission to shift him to Andhra Pradesh, but the court rejected the plea for his transit remand on the grounds that the Andhra Pradesh Police did not follow the proper inter-state arrest procedure.
With the Guntur court issuing an arrest warrant, the police team is likely to return to Bihar to take Naik into custody.
Raghurama Krishna Raju was allegedly tortured in police custody in 2021 when the YSR Congress Party was in power.
Raju, then an MP, was arrested for allegedly making derogatory remarks against the then Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Raju was elected to the Lok Sabha on a YSRCP ticket from Narsapuram in 2019, but he later became a rebel.
He was arrested on May 14, 2021, at his residence in Hyderabad for speaking against the government and allegedly instigating communal unrest in the state.
Raju joined the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) just before the 2024 elections and was elected to the Assembly. The TDP-led coalition made him Deputy Speaker.
In July 2024, Guntur police registered an FIR against Jagan Mohan Reddy, three IPS officers, and others based on a complaint by Raju, who alleged that there was an attempt on his life during police custody.
Naik, who was serving as a DIG of the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (CID) at that time, is named as the 7th accused in the case registered in the Nagarampalem police station in Guntur.
After the change of government in 2024, Naik returned to Bihar.
Meanwhile, the IPS officer approached the Andhra Pradesh High Court for anticipatory bail, denying any involvement in the custodial torture of the former MP.