Viveka murder case: In fresh notice, CBI asks YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy to report to its office on Monday

Avinash Reddy was to appear before the CBI on the morning of Friday, 19 May, but he did not, informing the investigation agency that his mother was unwell.

Related: Supreme Court refuses urgent hearing on Avinash bail plea

The last summons

He submitted a letter to the CBI informing that he had to accompany his mother in the absence of his father YS Bhaskar Reddy.

Both Bhaskar Reddy and his aide G Uday Kumar Reddy have been lodged in the Chanchalguda prison for the last few days in connection with the murder case.

Instead of coming to the CBI office, Avinash Reddy headed towards Kadapa to meet his mother but on reaching Chukkaluru village in Tadipatri, he joined his mother in an ambulance that was heading towards Hyderabad.

Avinash Reddy later admitted his mother to a private hospital in Kurnool district in Andhra Pradesh for better treatment.

He has already appeared before the CBI over half a dozen times in connection with the murder of Vivekananda Reddy, popularly known as Viveka, who was found murdered in his Kadapa house on the intervening night of 14-15 March, 2019.

Viveka is also the paternal uncle of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Related: Telangana HC denies Avinash Reddy anticipatory bail citing SC order

The case

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

The CBI stated that Avinash Reddy, along with his associate Siva Shankar Reddy, propagated a theory that Vivekananda Reddy had died of a heart attack.

The investigating agency said in its chargesheet that Bhaskar Reddy and Avinash Reddy bore a grudge against Vivekananda after failing to get a ticket for their associate, Siva Shankar Reddy, in the MLC elections in 2017.

Siva Shankar Reddy also bore a grudge against Vivekananda Reddy for failing to extend support to him during the sarpanch elections in Kadapa, the central agency added.

Attempts to seek bail

Apprehending imminent arrest, Avinash Reddy has been making all-out efforts to obtain anticipatory bail.

After getting a breather from the CBI till 19 May for appearing before it, Avinash Reddy, on 17 May, attempted an urgent hearing of his petition in the Supreme Court to direct the Telangana High Court to hear his plea for anticipatory bail.

The attempt, was however, unsuccessful. Though Reddy’s counsel made a mention before the Supreme Court for taking up the petition to direct the high court, the apex court asked him to give in writing why he wants an urgent hearing.

It also refused to fix any date for hearing his petition.

Avinash Reddy had sought anticipatory bail from the Telangana High Court, but it adjourned the hearing to 5 June as it was closing for the summer vacation.

‘I’m being framed’

In his petition before the Telangana High Court, Avinash Reddy had argued that he had nothing to do Viveka’s murder and was framed based on the statement of an accused, Dastagiri, who had turned approver.

However, the CBI, in its counter to the petition, said that it had other evidence besides Dastagiri’s statement that suggested Avinash Reddy had a role in the murder.

The CBI said that Avinash Reddy, his father Bhaskar Reddy, Devireddy Sivasankar Reddy, Udaya Kumar Reddy, and Yerra Gangi Reddy played key roles in destroying evidence at the residence of Vivekananda Reddy where the latter was done to death, and later tried to paint it as a case of death occurring due to cardiac arrest.

Yerra Gangi Reddy, the prime accused in the case, whose bail was cancelled by the Telangana High Court, surrendered before the CBI on 5 May.

The investigating agency then produced him before the Special Court for CBI cases, which remanded him to judicial custody till 2 June.