Several key details have emerged in the murder case of former Member of Parliament (MP) YS Vivekananda Reddy, after the confessional statement of one of the accused, Shaik Dastagiri, came to light on Saturday, November 13. Dastagiri’s statement claims that festering suspicion over politics, combined with a dispute over sharing returns from a land deal, led the four accused persons to kill the former MP, who is also Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s uncle, in his own home in Kadapa in the early hours of March 15, 2019.
Dastagiri, who worked as Vivekananda Reddy’s driver from February 2017 to December 2018, is one of the four persons against whom the CBI had filed a charge sheet, along with Gangi Reddy, Sunil Yadav and Gajjala Umashankar Reddy. The former driver has now turned approver to the CBI, according to the Times of India.
Dastagiri’s confessional statement under Section 164 of the CrPC was filed before a Magistrate in Kadapa by the CBI on Saturday. In the statement, Dastagiri claimed that after Vivekananda Reddy lost the MLC elections in 2017, he blamed his defeat on several leaders in Kadapa, including Gajjal Jagadishwar Reddy, Bhaskara Reddy, Avinash Reddy and Gangi Reddy. Gangi Reddy, who accompanied Vivekananda Reddy everywhere, had travelled with him to Bengaluru several times during 2017-18 over the settlement of a land parcel, Dastagiri said in his statement, according to Deccan Chronicle.
The land sale fetched Rs 8 crore, according to Dastagiri, and Gangi Reddy was allegedly upset that Vivekananda Reddy refused to share this amount as he desired, despite his active involvement in the deal. This led to further disputes between Vivekananda Reddy and Gangi Reddy, and in February 2019, the latter roped in Sunil Yadav, Umashankar Reddy and Dastagiri to plan Vivekananda Reddy’s murder, the former driver stated, according to The New Indian Express.
According to Sakshi daily, the statement said that the accused got Vivekananda Reddy’s dog run over by a car before the day of the planned murder, so they could easily enter the house. Having conducted a recce beforehand, the four accused entered Vivekananda Reddy’s house in the early hours of March 15, 2019, and Dastagiri along with the others overpowered him, assaulted him, and hacked him with an axe, the confessional statement reportedly said. According to ToI, it also said that Gangi Reddy had made a deal of Rs 40 crore with another suspect in the case, Devireddy Shiva Shankar Reddy, for the murder, of which Rs 5 crore was promised to Dastagiri and Rs 1 crore was handed over to him.
Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Suneetha Narreddy has repeatedly raised suspicions that Devireddy Shiva Shankar Reddy was involved in her father’s murder. She recently alleged that her family was under threat, amidst suspicious movements of an acquaintance of Devireddy near her residence.