Viveka murder case: For the second time, CBI grills YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy for over four hours

Avinash Reddy to the CBI

During questioning, Avinash Reddy apparently responded to various questions raised by the central investigating agency.

The investigators also elicited more information regarding the names that figured in a bail counter-petition of one of the accused Sunil Yadav, filed before the Telangana High Court on Wednesday.

Interacting with the media after exiting the CBI office, Avinash Reddy said that, in continuation of the investigation, he appeared before it and, to the best of his knowledge, he informed them about everything he knows.

Targeted investigation

When reporters asked him why the CBI was targeting him, Avinash Reddy said that since the beginning of the case, the investigation was proceeding in an “individual-targeted” manner. He also found fault with the media trial when the investigation was going on.

He claimed that the media trial would influence the ongoing investigation and urged the media to behave responsibly while telecasting the news.

“Whatever was spoken by the TDP a year ago has figured in the counter-petition filed by the CBI,” he said, and added that the investigation was proceeding in a unilateral manner.

Also Read: Viveka murder: CBI issues notice to Avinash Reddy to appear before it 

Standing by his statement

Avinash Reddy said that he submitted a representation with facts related to the case and requested the CBI to look into it.

When asked whether the CBI had asked him to appear before it again, Avinash Reddy said that the investigators did not. He clarified that he had repeated all that he had said at the mortuary after Vivekananda Reddy’s death.

“I said the same things today as well. Even if the CBI repeatedly asks me about the case, I will say the same thing again because it is the truth,” he reiterated.

pic.twitter.com/dAOOjMXKh3

— YS Avinash Reddy (@MP_YSRKADAPA) February 24, 2023

Family politics

Avinash Reddy said that when they went to the crime scene on 15 March, 2019, there was a letter, which later went missing.

“What happened to that letter in which it was clearly mentioned that it was a murder? In the course of time it will also come out,” he explained.

Vivekananda Reddy was the brother of former Andhra Pradesh chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy and uncle of incumbent Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Vivekananda Reddy was found murdered at his residence in Pulivendula, the constituency now represented by his nephew, on the night of 15 March, 2019, weeks before the state Assembly elections.

Also Read: Viveka murder: ₹40 crore ‘supari’ offered by accused: CBI to HC 

CBI to Telangana High Court

The agency told the Telangana High Court on Wednesday, 21 February, that it suspects the role of Anivash Reddy and his father YS Bhaskar Reddy in the case.

The father-son duo hatched the plot and sheltered the accused, and their associate Devireddy Siva Shankar Reddy played a crucial role in erasing the evidence, according to the CBI.

The CBI also said Vivekananda Reddy tried to get a Kadapa MP ticket other family members during the parliamentary elections in 2019 and an MLA ticket to Avinash Reddy from the Jammalamadugu Assembly constituency.

On coming to know about it, Bhaskar Reddy and Avinash Reddy allegedly hatched a plan, said the CBI, adding that Gangireddy, one more accused in the case, assisted them in the crime.

In November 2022, the Supreme Court transferred the trial of the murder case from Andhra Pradesh to the Special CBI Court in Hyderabad.

The transfer order was issued based on a petition filed by Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter, Suneetha Narreddy, who expressed fear that the case would be sabotaged.