The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has summoned Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy for questioning in his uncle and former Andhra Pradesh Minister YS Vivekananda Reddy's murder case. Avinash Reddy, a cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, was asked to appear before CBI officials in Hyderabad on Tuesday, January 24. The YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) MP, however, conveyed his inability to appear on January 24 due to prior commitments in Pulivendula and sought another date.
After visiting a temple in Pulivendula town in his home constituency Kadapa, Avinash addressed the media on Tuesday and said that he has asked for four to five days’ time to appear before the CBI. He said that he will fully cooperate with the CBI in the investigation. “Over the past two-and-a-half years, I have faced a lot of character assassination and trial by media. I don’t like to talk about this because I cannot digest these allegations… Truth must prevail,” he said. The CBI served the notice on the day when it conducted searches at the offices of Avinash Reddy and his father Bhaskar Reddy.
Vivekananda Reddy, uncle of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, was found murdered at his residence in Kadapa on March 15, 2019, a few days before the election. The 68-year-old former state minister and former MP was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged in and killed him. He was killed hours before he was to launch YSR Congress Party's election campaign in Kadapa.
Though three Special Investigation Teams (SITs) conducted the probe, they failed to solve the case. The CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of the Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Sunitha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.
The CBI filed a charge sheet in the murder case on October 26, 2021, and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on January 31, 2022. In November 2022, the Supreme Court transferred to a CBI court in Hyderabad the trial and probe into the larger conspiracy behind the murder. The apex court observed that doubts raised by Sunitha Reddy about getting a fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh were reasonable.