Kadapa MP moves Telangana HC for anticipatory bail

Hyderabad: Kadapa MP Y. S. Avinash Reddy on Monday approached the Telangana High Court for anticipatory bail in Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case.

Hours before he was to appear before the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in Hyderabad, the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP filed a petition in the High Court, seeking anticipatory bail.

Avinash Reddy has pleaded for urgent hearing of the petition as he is to appear before the CBI officials at 3 p.m. The court has agreed to take it for hearing after lunch.

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 remanded 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 statement was recorded as a witness.

Meanwhile, the MP left from Pulivendula for Hyderabad on Monday morning. He along with Chandragiri MLA Chevireddy Bhaskar Reddy and other YSRCP leaders left for Hyderabad by road.

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

He claimed that Vivekananda Reddy’s son-in-law knew about murder but he did not inform the police. The MP claimed that the CBI did not question the slain leader’s son-in-law about suppressing the information.

Avinash Reddy said the investigation should be based on facts and not to target individuals.

He said the new investigating officials of the CBI were doing the same thing which earlier officers had done.

Vivekananda Reddy, brother of 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.