The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has filed a case against Indian Information Service (IIS) officer Thumma Vijay Kumar Reddy, former Commissioner of Information and Public Relations (I&PR) and former ex officio Secretary to I&PR, Government of Andhra Pradesh, for allegedly resorting to quid pro quo, corruption, nepotism, irregularities and misuse of power, and causing loss to the State exchequer.

Though the ACB had filed the First Information Report (FIR) against Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy in November 2024, it came to light on December 25, 2024.

As per the FIR, Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy had allegedly appointed outsourcing employees on the recommendation of politicians without following the recruitment norms.

The recruitments made to 142 posts included PROs, photographers, videographers, information technicians, data entry operators, office subordinates and drivers.

The ACB alleged that Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy had violated the rules by extending the tenure of Kartikeya Security Agencies, which was engaged in providing outsourcing employees to the government. The FIR also stated that the officer had allegedly instructed the Kartikeya Security Agencies to appoint the persons suggested by the politicians, instead of following due procedure.

It was also alleged that Mr. Vijaya Kumar Reddy had filled another 113 posts in the AP Digital Corporation Limited (APDC), which included, among others, special officers, content developers, and social media analysts.

While recruiting the candidates for these posts, the official had allegedly acted on the recommendation of G. Devendar Reddy, the then Chief Digital Director. Preliminary inquiry revealed that the government did not have the resumes of some of the outsourcing employees.

Further, the FIR alleged that Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy had given a majority of video advertisements to select news channels, which included TV9, Sakshi and NTV.

Out of the total ₹26.71 crore spent on advertisements, ₹16.17 crore was given to Sakshi, TV9 and NTV. No advertisements were given to ABN Andhra Jyothi, TV5 and Maha News between 2019 and February 2024, it was alleged.

The FIR mentioned that Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy had orally instructed exclusion of these news channels. Besides, he had allegedly failed to clear pending bills pertaining to ETV AP, ABN Andhra Jyothi, TV5, Maha News and a few other TV channels, while processing the bills of Sakshi, TV9 and NTV, the FIR said.

Regarding print media advertisements, a total of ₹859.29 crore was released towards classified and display advertisements in newspapers from 2019 to 2024. It was allegedly found that Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy had released advertisements worth ₹371.12 crore, which was more than 43%, to Sakshi newspaper alone.

The ACB further alleged that Mr. Vijay Kumar Reddy had given undue preference to Sakshi over other newspapers while clearing the bills. In addition, he had allegedly enhanced the advertisement tariffs for Sakshi newspaper, which were more than the requested price, and caused loss to the public exchequer.

Mahendra Mathe, Additional Superintendent of Police, Guntur Range, ACB, is the investigation officer.