CBI defers Kadapa MP's questioning in Viveka murder case

Hyderabad, April 17: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has deferred, to Tuesday, the questioning of Kadapa MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy in Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case.

When Avinash Reddy reached the CBI regional office in Hyderabad in response to the notice served on him on Sunday, he was informed that the questioning had been postponed to Tuesday.

The CBI has sent a fresh notice to him asking him to appear for questioning at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday.

The central agency is believed to have postponed the questioning on the advice of the Telangana High Court, which was hearing anticipatory bail petition of the MP.

Avinash Reddy was directed to appear before CBI officials at 3 p.m. and he had reached Hyderabad from his native Pulivendula in Kadapa district of Andhra Pradesh.

The MP had also filed a petition in the Telangana High Court for anticipatory bail. The court wanted the CBI to postpone the questioning in view of the hearing.

Meanwhile, Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Suneetha Reddy has also filed an impleadment petition in the High Court. She prayed to the court to hear her arguments before pronouncing its judgment.

The MP fears arrest in the case as his father Y.S. Bhaskar Reddy was arrested in the case on Sunday. In its petition seeking custody of Bhaskar Reddy, the CBI has named Avinash Reddy as co-accused.

Bhaskar Reddy, who was arrested in Pulivendula on Sunday, was brought to Hyderabad and produced before a magistrate, who sent him to judicial custody for 14 days. The CBI has also filed a petition seeking his custody for further questioning.

The agency has alleged that Bhaskar Reddy, along with co-accused D. Siva Shankar Reddy, Gangi Reddy, G. Uday Kumar Reddy and Avinash Reddy, played key roles in causing disappearance of evidence from the scene of murder. For the first time, the CBI has named Avinash Reddy as accused in the case.

Avinash Reddy, cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, has been questioned by the CBI four times during the last couple of months. However, his statements were recorded as a witness.

Following his father's arrest on Sunday, Avinash Reddy alleged that the CBI ignored some key facts in the case and was treating them as the accused.

Vivekananda Reddy, brother of undivided Andhra Pradesh's former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy and uncle of present Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, was found murdered at his residence in Pulivendula of Kadapa district on the night of March 15, 2019, a few days before the elections.

The 68-year-old former state minister and former MP was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged in and killed him.

The CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Suneetha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.

The Supreme Court transferred the case to Hyderabad in November last year while observing that doubts raised by Suneetha Reddy about getting a fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh were reasonable.