The Supreme Court on Tuesday (July 18) directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to place on record its charge sheet and the police records in the case of murder former Andhra Pradesh Minister Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy in 2019.
A Bench headed by Justice Sanjiv Khanna also directed the Central agency to file its reply to a petition filed by Suneetha Narreddy, the daughter of the slain Minister, challenging the anticipatory bail granted by the Telangana High Court to Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy, whose alleged role in the crime is under investigation.
The CBI charge sheet was filed on June 30, the deadline stipulated by the Supreme Court to complete the probe.
The Bench listed the case for hearing on September 11.
Senior advocate Siddharth Luthra and advocate Jesal Wahi for Ms. Narreddy had accused Avinash Reddy of refusing to join the CBI probe despite repeated notices to appear for questioning.
He had argued that the Telangana High Court had held a “mini-trial” and made comments on the merits of the prosecution case “virtually accepting” Avinash Reddy’s narrative while “disregarding the evidence collected by the CBI”, completely in contravention of the law laid down by the Supreme Court that merits of the case cannot be discussed while hearing a bail plea.
“We want the anticipatory bail to be dismissed,” Mr. Luthra had stressed.
The petition has said the “CBI wanted to arrest him, however, they were unable to do so and were obstructed by him and his large number of his supporters/goons who had camped outside the hospital, where he took shelter to avoid arrest on the pretext of his mother’s alleged health issues”.
The petition has said Avinash Reddy along with other accused had destroyed the scene of offence in the presence of the State Police and had propagated the story that the deceased had died due to a heart attack.
Mr. Luthra had said the crime was “cold-blooded murder”.
The petition said Avinash Reddy was a “sitting Member of Parliament from the ruling party in Andhra Pradesh, and he along with other accused, with the aid of the State machinery and powerful people in the current ruling party was influencing the investigation, and has been consistently threatening and influencing the witnesses”.
Before the Telangana High Court, the CBI Special Public Prosecutor had submitted that an IPDR analysis of Avinash Reddy’s mobile phone revealed that “he was active on WhatsApp and had exchanged voice calls just before the murder of YS Vivekananda Reddy… further, the location of mobile phone of one of the assailants namely, Y. Sunil Yadav, was found inside the house of YS Avinash Reddy before and after the commission of murder and particularly at 1.58 am on March 15, 2019”.
The CBI had alleged that “further investigation on the larger conspiracy aspect revealed that YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, the present Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, had been informed about the the death of YS Vivekananda Reddy in the early hours of March 15, 2019, much before the information about the death broke out…”
