Vivekananda Reddy was found dead at his home in Kadapa on March 15, 2019.
The CBI has issued a notice to YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy in connection with the March 2019 murder of former MP Vivekananda Reddy. Avinash Reddy has been asked to appear at the CBI's Hyderabad office today at 3pm.
Yesterday, Avishash Reddy's father YS Bhaskar Reddy was arrested by the CBI from their home in Pulivendula and was brought to Hyderabad and sent to two weeks of judicial custody at Chanchalguda Jail. On Friday, the CBI arrested Udayakumar Reddy, said to be a close aide of Avinash Reddy, on charges of tampering and destroying evidence.
Bhaskar Reddy is the paternal cousin of YS Vivekananda Reddy, former MP and Andhra Pradesh minister and brother of former chief minister of erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, YS Rajasekhar Reddy.
Therefore, Bhaskar Reddy is also an uncle of the current Andhra Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Vivekananda Reddy was found dead at his Pulivendula home in Kadapa on March 15, 2019, just a couple of months before elections in the state. Initially, it was reported that he had died of heart failure, however, further investigation revealed that he was murdered, raising suspicions.
The case was probed by a special investigation team (SIT) of the state criminal investigation department but was handed over to the CBI in March 2020 on a plea by Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Suneetha Reddy.
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.
The CBI had been unable to find the axe that was said to have been the murder weapon though it was reported that it had been thrown into a water body nearby.
Last month, hearing a plea by Suneetha Reddy alleging that there was an inordinate delay in the probe, the Supreme Court replaced investigation officer Ram Singh and appointed an SIT of the CBI to complete the investigation by April 30.
Speaking to the media in Pulivendula, hours after his father's arrest, Avinash Reddy, who has already been questioned four times by the CBI, said, "We were shocked to learn of the arrest of my father, YS Bhaskar Reddy. We will persevere in this fight, and the truth will win. The CBI downplayed some of the case's most important and crucial elements. We have made our concerns known to the CBI Director, the new IO, and the DIG. They have continued to operate in the same manner as the previous IO and have not made an effort to look into the important issues raised."
"After the death, even before our presence at the spot, the news about Vivekananda Reddy's murder was informed to his son-in-law, Rajasekar Reddy, an hour before I received the call. It was the son-in-law who called his personal assistant Krishna Reddy and instructed him to hide the letter and Viveka's mobile phone," Avinash Reddy alleged.