The Telangana Congress has written to DGP Ravi Gupta demanding strict vigil at government offices following several attempts to remove or destroy files and documents pertaining to the previous BRS government.

The complaint of the Congress came close on the heels of the police thwarting an attempt to steal files from a government office under the Education Department.

The incident occurred a day after a former officer on special duty (OSD) with former BRS minister Talasani Srinivas Yadav and four others were booked for trespassing in the Animal Husbandry Department and destroying government documents and CCTV cameras.

Five people, including former OSD Kalyan, computer operator Elijah and Mohan and attendants, Venkatesh and Prasanth, were booked by the police after a watchman at the animal husbandry office in Masab Tank noticed the locked door of a room open at around 7 pm on 8 December. Documents were found strewn all over the floor and some cameras damaged at the room belonged to the said OSD.

Some of the papers appeared to have been taken away from some documents kept inside a black cover. When CCTV footage of the room was scan it was found that five men had entered the premises that evening prompting the watchman to lodge a complaint with a nearest police station.

On 9 December, a police team stopped an auto rickshaw full of government files. When the cops tried to question the men, who were ostensibly transporting the files from the Education Council Training Institute at Basheerbagh, they ran away abandoning the vehicle.

Earlier, on 2 December, a day before the election results were declared, several files, computers as well as furniture pieces were damaged in a fire in the office of the Tourism Department. The cause of the fire was not clear.

In view of all these incidents, it was natural for the Congress to grow suspicious. In his letter, vice-president of the party’s state unit G Niranjan brought to the notice of the DGP all the incidents. He alleged that the files and records are being destroyed “by persons from the previous government to cover up their misdeeds”.

He went on to demand that strict vigil on government offices. Apart from Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, only a few ministers have taken charge and miscreants are taking advantage of the transition period to remove documents which might turn out to be damaging as evidence.