Hyderabad: Former director general of police in combined Andhra Pradesh Dr Bayyarapu Prasada Rao, IPS, died of a massive heart attack at his son’s residence in Houston in the United States of America in the early hours of Monday.
He was 65 years and is survived by his wife Sowmini and son Vikas.
According to his family members, Prasada Rao complained of chest pain and was about to be taken to the hospital. He breathed his last at around 1 am (Indian Standard Time) by the time the ambulance arrived at his residence.
An IPS officer of 1979 batch, Rao served as the last DGP of the combined Andhra Pradesh state, before its bifurcation. He took charge as the DGP in October 2013 after the retirement of V Dinesh Reddy and retired from service on attaining the age of superannuation in May 2014.
Born on September 11, 1955 as a son of a police constable in Guntur district, Rao served the police force in various capacities, including commissioner of Visakhapatnam and Hyderabad, director general of Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), principal secretary (home), secretary (internal security) in the Union ministry of home officers.
He was also the Vice-Chairman and Managing Director of AP State Road Transport Corporation. While on central government deputation he was commandant of the Central Industrial Security Force at Visakhapatnam and Bhopal.
Rao also served as DIG of Eluru and Kurnool ranges, Additional DG (Law and Order) and Additional DG (Provisioning and Logistics).
He was awarded the Indian Police Medal for meritorious service in 1997 and the President’s Police Medal for distinguished service in 2006.
Prasada Rao’s passion for science
Known for his soft-spoken character but tough policing, Rao had a different side for his personality – He was a passionate physicist, having done his M.Sc. (Physics) from Indian Institute of Science (Madras) in 1977.
Despite being in such a busy profession as the top cop, Rao never gave up his love for physics. After his retirement, he served as a guest faculty in Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Kakinada. He also worked as a professor in Physics and Director (Training, Placements and Industry Interface) at Bharat Institutions, Hyderabad.
He authored a book ‘Word power to mind power’, a unique method of learning and memorising English vocabulary applying visualisation and contextualisation. He was awarded PhD for his research on ‘Studies on the Wave-Particle Duality of Light’ by Sri Krishnadevaraya University in 2014.
He authored a research paper titled ‘Interference and Diffraction’, a new theory, which was published in the International Journal of Applied Physics and Mathematics.
Prasada Rao conducted experiments on Wave Theory on nature of light from 1988-2011. He conducted workshops, delivered lectures and presented papers at the Indian Science Congress in Bangalore and national conference on Spectro Physics in Chennai.