The Andhra Pradesh police on Friday, December 29, filed a charge sheet against YS Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Sunitha, son-in-law Rajasekhar Reddy, and CBI officer Ram Singh, who investigated former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy’s murder case.
The case was registered based on a complaint filed by Vivekananda Reddy’s personal assistant Krishna Reddy, who alleged that the CBI officer had threatened him to name one Devireddy Sivasankara Reddy and a few other leaders of the YSR Congress Party to be a witness in the case. In his complaint, filed in 2021, he also alleged that Sunitha Reddy and Rajasekhar Reddy had threatened him.
Krishna Reddy also claimed that the CBI officer had called him to the agency office and assaulted him in front of his son.
Krishna Reddy was questioned by the CBI in November 2021 about Vivekananda Reddy’s murder. A month later, in December 2021, he filed a complaint with the Kadapa SP, making allegations about Sunitha and others. Following this, Krishna Reddy approached the Junior Civil Judge court in Pulivendula the same month.
For two years, there was no movement in the case. In December 2023, Krishna Reddy approached the court again. The court then asked the police to examine the veracity of the complaint under section 156 of the Criminal Procedure Code (police power to investigate cognisable case). The court also asked the police to submit a report to it by January 4. After this, the progress was lightning speed.
The police registered a case against Ram Singh, Sunitha and Rajasekhar Reddy on December 15 and a chargesheet on December 29. Sunitha has, however, not been questioned in the case yet and has only been served a notice.
The case has been filed under sections 352 (assault), 323 (punishment for causing hurt), 330 (extort confession), 342 (wrongful confinement), 348 (wrongful confinement to extort confession), 506 (criminal intimidation), 195 A (threat to injure), 166 A (public servant disobeying law), 167 (framing an incorrect document), 109 (punishment for abetment), and 120 B (criminal conspiracy) read with 156 CrPC (police power to investigate cognisable case).
Ram Singh has been named as the first accused, followed by Rajasekhar Reddy and Sunitha.
Vivekananda Reddy, the uncle of Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, was murdered at his residence in Pulivendula on March 15, 2019, weeks before the Assembly elections.
The CBI took over the investigation in 2020 on the direction of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, which was hearing a petition filed by Sunitha, who raised suspicion against some relatives.
Last year, on a petition filed by Sunitha, the Supreme Court transferred the case to Hyderabad.
In April this year, the CBI arrested YS Bhaskar Reddy, the father of Kadapa MP and Jagan Reddy’s cousin YS Avinash Reddy.
The CBI claimed that both Avinash Reddy and Bhaskar Reddy conspired to eliminate Vivekananda Reddy because he was against fielding Avinash Reddy from the Kadapa Lok Sabha seat and instead wanted Jagan Reddy to field his mother or sister.
Avinash Reddy was granted anticipatory bail by the Telangana High Court on May 31.
Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary Nara Lokesh, on Saturday, expressed shock over the “false case” filed against Sunitha Reddy, Rajasekhar Reddy and Ram Singh.
“What’s more, a charge sheet has also been filed at jet speed. The culprits behind the gruesome murder are moving around freely with protocol while those fighting for justice are being harassed and intimidated with cases. To my mind, this is nothing but a travesty of justice,” Lokesh wrote on X.