The High Court on Wednesday ordered that the State government should hand over the Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation keeping the tardy pace of the investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) since the incident took place on March 15, 2019, in mind.
Justice U. Durga Prasad Rao said inter-State criminals could be involved in the murder and the investigation could not be dragged further as SIT had enough time to dig out the facts but the outcome had been insignificant.
He also suggested that a detailed probe be conducted, including how the local (Pulivendula) police handled the sensational case. Justice Prasad Rao directed the CBI to complete the investigation at the earliest while pointing out that a lot of time has been wasted so far.
It may be noted that the SIT has examined multiple witnesses, conducted narco-analysis of some suspects and arrested three persons for allegedly tampering with the evidence at the murder scene (Vivekananda Reddy’s house in Pulivendula).
Withdrawal of plea
The HC recently permitted the withdrawal of the writ petition which Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy had filed when he was the Leader of the Opposition seeking entrustment of Vivekananda Reddy murder case to the CBI. The court scrutinised the case and general diary files and the post-mortem report.
Further, Vivekananda Reddy’s wife Sowbhagya had filed a petition in the HC praying for the declaration of the actions of SIT arbitrary and unconstitutional and raised several doubts on the circumstances under which the former MP was done to death and the persons involved in it.
The State government contended that the petitioners have not satisfied the tests laid down by the Supreme Court for transfer of investigation to the CBI and vague pleadings and unsubstantiated contentions cannot form the basis of the petition.
Ms. Sowbhagya, TDP MLC Mareddy Ravindranatha Reddy (B.Tech Ravi) and C. Adinarayana Reddy, BJP leader and former minister in the TDP government, sought the CBI probe.
