Viveka murder case: CBI appoints new probe team; Supreme Court sets 30 April deadline

The accused in the Viveka murder have been alleging that the probe by the current SIT chief Ram Singh was not going in the right direction, and that he had been pressuring them to give false testimony.

Now, the CBI entrusted the probe to CBI DIG KR Chourasia. His investigation team will include Superintendent of Police (SP) Vikas Singh, Additional SP Mukesh Kumar, Inspectors S Srimathi and Naveen Punia, and Sub-Inspector Ankit Yadav.

The Supreme Court bench headed by Justice MR Shah also said that the accused could move a petition for regular bail if the trial in the case did not commence within six months.

The apex court, during the hearing of the case two days ago, was critical of the slow pace of investigation by the CBI.

It also expressed displeasure over the status report filed by the CBI, stating that it contained no details on the progress of the investigation.

At that time, the apex court directed the CBI to replace investigation officer Ram Singh and entrust the probe to a new officer.

Avinash Reddy accused Ram Singh

It was only on Tuesday that YSRCP MP YS Avinash Reddy filed an anticipatory bail petition in the Telangana High Court in connection with the murder case of his uncle and former MP YS Vivekananda Reddy in March 2019.

Avinash Reddy appeared before the CBI for the fourth time at its office in Koti, Hyderabad, on 13 March, in connection with the murder case.

The CBI team questioned Avinash Reddy for over four hours in the presence of his advocate Nagarjuna.

Earlier, he filed a writ petition in the Telangana High Court seeking direction to stay his examination by the CBI under Section 161 of the CrPC in the case.

In the petition, Avinash Reddy said that an attempt was being made to frame him in the case, though he was not connected to it in any way.

Avinash Reddy also said that there was nothing on record to substantiate the allegation that he was in any way complicit in committing any offence, much less the offence of killing Viveka.

“It is submitted that the investigation being conducted by the IO is not fair and impartial and there is material to conclude that from the beginning I am being implicated in the crime without there being any admissible evidence and by only twisting facts to frame me as being culpable for the crime,” Avinash Reddy said in the petition.

Trial transferred out of Andhra Pradesh

The Supreme Court last November transferred the case from Andhra Pradesh to a Special CBI Court in Hyderabad for investigation and trial into the conspiracy behind the murder case.

The apex court’s decision came on a petition by Viveka’s daughter, Dr Narreddy Suneetha, who had in the past alleged that Avinash Reddy was hampering the CBI probe.

Vivekananda Reddy, the brother of late Congress strongman and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, was found dead under suspicious circumstances at his Pulivendula residence on 15 March, 2019, days before the general elections.

In a charge sheet filed before the court earlier, the CBI stated that Avinash Reddy, along with his associate Devireddy Sivshankar Reddy, floated a theory that Vivekananda Reddy died of a heart attack while in fact he was found in a pool of blood and injuries on his body.

The CBI also said Vivekananda Reddy was eying the YSRCP’s Kadapa Lok Sabha ticket for himself, Jagan’s sister YS Sharmila, or his mother YS Vijayalakhmi, instead of Avinash Reddy.

3 SITs, 1,300 witnesses

Before the CBI took up the probe, the Andhra Pradesh government constituted three Special Investigation Teams (SITs) to investigate the murder.

They examined at least 1,300 witnesses and conducted narco analyses on three suspects.

As there was no progress in the case that was being investigated by the SITs, Viveka’s daughter Suneetha approached the courts, seeking directions to hand over the probe to the CBI as she feared that the case would be sabotaged.

The CBI registered a case on 9 July, 2020, on the orders of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, and took over the case registered at Pulivendula Police Station.

It has until now recorded the statements of over 248 people in the case.