Avinash Reddy was directed to cooperate with the investigation and appear before the CBI every Saturday till the end of June 2023.
Avinash Reddy was granted anticipatory bail by Telangana High Court on 31 May. (Commons)
The CBI arrested YSRCP MP YS Avinash Reddy on 3 June in connection with the murder of his uncle and former MP and Andhra Pradesh minister YS Vivekananda Reddy, and subsequently released him as he was granted anticipatory bail on 31 May.
Avinash Reddy, who appeared before the CBI in Hyderabad on 3 June for questioning, was arrested and released the same day after fulfilling certain formalities, sources said.
The Lok Sabha member from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, who was granted anticipatory bail by the Telangana High Court on 31 May, was directed to cooperate with the investigation and to appear before the CBI every Saturday till the end of June in connection with the case.
The court, in its order, had said that the petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of his arrest by the CBI on execution of a personal bond of ₹5 lakh, with two sureties for a like sum each, to the satisfaction of the CBI.
The MP is learnt to have fulfilled those conditions.
The CBI has also declared Avinash Reddy as accused No 8 in the case.
In a counter-petition filed in the special court for CBI cases in Hyderabad to oppose bail to Avinash Reddy’s father Bhaskar Reddy, the CBI declared Avinash Reddy as accused number 8 (A8).
The premier investigating agency earlier called him a co-accused in the case but did not declare him as an accused. It said both father and son were allegedly involved in the conspiracy hatched to kill Vivekananda Reddy.
The duo was also responsible for tampering with the evidence. The CBI said that it had evidence of the involvement of both father and son in the case.
Both Bhaskar Reddy and Avinash Reddy were attempting to mislead the case and they were also trying to influence the witnesses in the case, the investigating agency alleged. The CBI earlier said that a larger conspiracy was hatched to eliminate Vivekananda Reddy.
Meanwhile, the special court for CBI cases will deliver its judgement on the bail plea of Bhaskar Reddy on Friday, 9 June.
Both CBI’s public prosecutor and the defense counsel submitted their arguments. The defense counsel sought bail for Bhaskar Reddy in view of his health condition. After hearing the arguments, the court reserved the judgement to 9 June.
The CBI charged Bhaskar Reddy with Sections 120B (conspiracy), 302 (murder) and 201 (causing disappearance of evidence) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), claiming he played a crucial role in the case.
The premier investigation agency arrested him in Pulivendula two months ago. He has been lodged in the Chanchalguda prison as a remand prisoner since then.
The case is related to the murder of Vivekananda Reddy, popularly known as Viveka, a former Andhra Pradesh minister and a former MP from Kadapa constituency.
In the early hours of 15 March, 2019, Vivekananda Reddy was brutally murdered at his residence. His body was found in a pool of blood in the bathroom adjacent to his bedroom.
Vivekananda Reddy was the younger brother of the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy, former chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh. That made him the uncle of current Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Vivekananda Reddy was an MLA of the Pulivendula constituency in 1985 and 1994, and a Member of the Lok Sabha from the Kadapa Parliamentary constituency in 1999 and 2004.
He was a member of the AP Legislative Council in 2009. He served as Minister of Agriculture and Member of the Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology, Environment & Forest constituted by the Central government in 2005.
After the murder, the police registered an FIR in the Pulivendula Urban Police Station with crime number 84/2019, initially under Section 174 of the Code of Criminal Procedure based on the complaint by MV Krishna Reddy, who was the personal assistant of the deceased.
Subsequently, the section of the law was altered to 302 of the IPC.
A Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the then-state government probed the case, which was later taken over by the CBI.
The CBI has already questioned Avinash Reddy, Bhaskar Reddy, and others allegedly involved in the case.
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