No progress in Vivekananda Reddy murder case even after 6 years; daughter seeks justice
Expressing hope that the CBI will resume the investigation soon, Sunitha said there was a growing suspicion that the accused were manipulating the proceedings to stall the investigation
The investigation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) into the murder of former Lok Sabha member YS Vivekananda Reddy, brother of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhar Reddy, on March 15, 2019, has made no headway till date, his daughter Narreddy Sunitha said on Saturday.
Sunitha, who paid tributes to Vivekananda Reddy at his samadhi in Pulivendula, lamented that justice eluded her family even after six years. “Even the trial has not begun in the CBI court. Almost all the suspects in the case are roaming free. I am apprehensive that the accused are going all out to prevent the commencement of trial,” she told reporters at Pulivendula.
Expressing hope that the CBI will resume the investigation soon, Sunitha said there was a growing suspicion that the accused were manipulating the proceedings to stall the investigation.
She also expressed apprehensions over the dilution of the case, as the witnesses were dying one after the other in mysterious circumstances. “Some other witnesses are being threatened into retracting their statements,” she added.
“More than the accused, it feels like our family is being punished in this case. I hope the CBI will take up the investigation again. The state government must take responsibility for protecting both the witnesses and the accused,” she said, adding that there is intense pressure being exerted on witnesses.
According to Sunitha, as many as six people, including key witnesses in the Vivekananda Reddy murder case, died under suspicious circumstances in the last six years. The latest death was that of 85-year-old B Ranganna, who was working as watchman at the residence of the slain leader at the time of murder.
Following a complaint from Ranganna’s wife Susheelamma, the Pulivendula police registered a case. Kadapa district superintendent of police Ashok Kumar announced the formation of a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to look into the case from multiple angles.
Other witnesses who have died include Katikareddy Srinivasa Reddy, Kalluri Gangadhara Reddy, driver Narayana Yadav, and Dr YS Abhishek Reddy, besides EC Gangi Reddy, father-in-law of YSR Congress party president and former chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy. All of them had either testified or were associated with the case in some way. These deaths have raised concerns about witness safety and the progress of the investigation.
“The series of deaths of witnesses in the Vivekananda Reddy murder case appears to be suspicious. We have asked police to have a relook into these incidents,” chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu said in the assembly on March 7.
Vivekananda Reddy, popularly known as Viveka, represented state assembly twice from Pulivendula (1989 to 1999), parliament twice from Kadapa (1999-2009) and was also a member of the state legislative council (2009-2015). He served for a brief term as the state minister for agriculture in 2011.
Viveka was found brutally murdered in the intervening night of March 14 and 15, weeks before the general elections to Lok Sabha and the state assembly, fetched tremendous political mileage to Jagan Mohan Reddy, the nephew of the slain former MP. Police found that he was hacked to death by an axe.
Jagan had then alleged that the murder was masterminded by then ruling Telugu Desam Party, led by N Chandrababu Naidu, who was then the chief minister, as part of eliminating the political rivals. While Naidu ordered a probe by a special investigation team (SIT) of the state police to probe the case, Jagan rejected it and demanded an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
The CBI, which took over the investigation from the state police in July 2020 following directions from the high court, filed its charge sheet on October 26, 2021 naming four people — Yerra Gangi Reddy, Y Sunil Yadav, G Uma Shankar Reddy and Shaik Dastagiri — as the accused in the case.
Of the four accused, Dastagiri, who had worked as a driver for Viveka in the past, had turned approver four days before the filing of the charge sheet and was granted anticipatory bail by the Pulivendula court.
Based on the confession statement of Dastagiri who turned an approver, the CBI quoted one of the accused Gangi Reddy of claiming that Avinash Reddy, his father YS Bhaskar Reddy and his associate D Shiv Shankar Reddy were also involved in the murder plan.
However, the trial in the CBI court at Kadapa had made little progress, as some of the witnesses and those facing charges filed private cases against the investigating officers in the last two years.
On November 29, 2022, the Supreme Court transferred the case to a special court for CBI cases in Hyderabad and ordered that the charge sheet be transferred from Kadapa to Hyderabad for ease of witnesses. It ordered that the CBI completes its investigation on the larger conspiracy at the earliest independently and in an unbiased manner. However, the investigation has made no headway till date.
