Seven police sub-inspectors land in soup for watching Sye Raa movie during duty hours

VIJAYAWADA: What’s wrong in watching a movie? Plenty, if you do it during duty hours. Seven police sub-inspectors learnt it the hard way on Wednesday when they went to watch Chiranjeevi-starrer Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy at a theatre in Koilkuntla village of Kurnool district when they were supposed to be on duty. Worse, they didn’t even seek permission from their higher-ups for their ‘escapade’.
All seven now face disciplinary action for bunking duty and have been sent to vacancy reserve till inquiry is completed by Kurnool SP Kaginelli Fakkeerappa.
The cops have been identified as BT Subbaiah (Bandi Atmakur police station), K Hari Prasad (Nadivargam PS), K Jagadeeswar Reddy (Kolimigundla PS), G Preetham Reddy (N Racharla PS), B Srikanth Reddy (Avuku PS), Niranjan Reddy (Gospadu PS) and P Ashok, who’s attached to the special branch at Allagadda.
Police sources said the erring cops were on bandobust duties for various Gandhi Jayanti programs in the district where VIPs were also present. But neither did they inform their superiors, nor did they seek permission to take leave. They also kept their mobile phones switched off.
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Speaking to TOI, Fakkeerappa said he has ordered a departmental inquiry into the incident. “All seven are station house officers (SHOs) and bachelors. Discipline is paramount. They should have informed their seniors if they were planning to do something like this during duty hours,” Fakkeerappa said, adding that he later came to know that all of them had planned to bunk duties to watch the movie. To top it off, they clicked selfies to show they were hardcore fans of Chiranjeevi.