Vivekananda murder case
The MP was supposed to be quizzed by the central agency on Friday, but he skipped the interrogation at the eleventh hour on the grounds that his mother had suddenly fallen ill at his hometown
Hyderabad
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday issued a fresh notice to YSR Congress party MP from Kadapa Y S Avinash Reddy, who evaded interrogation by the agency twice in the last one week in connection with the murder case of his uncle and former Andhra Pradesh minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy, people familiar with the matter said.
The CBI asked Avinash Reddy to appear before the investigating officer at its regional office in Hyderabad at 11 am on May 22.
The MP was supposed to be quizzed by the central agency on Friday, but he skipped the interrogation at the eleventh hour on the grounds that his mother had suddenly fallen ill at his hometown of Pulivendula in Kadapa district.
Instead of going to the CBI office, Avinash Reddy left for Kadapa along with his followers, amid high drama. The CBI authorities, who were informed by his lawyers about his decision to skip interrogation, followed him till Kurnool but returned to Hyderabad later in the evening.
The MP is presently at Kurnool, where his mother was admitted in a private hospital. “In view of the health condition of his mother, the CBI has given him two more days’ time for questioning in the Vivekananda Reddy murder case,” a police official familiar with the matter said.
This was the second time in a week that Avinash Reddy, cousin of Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, has skipped the CBI interrogation. He was originally asked to appear before the CBI on May 16, but he expressed his inability to appear at such a short notice because he had other pre-scheduled engagements in his parliamentary constituency. The CBI gave him time till May 19.
Vivekananda Reddy, brother of former chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was murdered at his residence in Pulivendula on the intervening night of March 14 and 15, 2019, weeks before the assembly elections in Andhra Pradesh.
Last month, the CBI arrested Avinash Reddy’s father Y S Bhaskar Reddy. The agency told the court during the hearing on multiple occasions that Bhaskar Reddy, Avinash Reddy and their follower Devireddy Shiva Shankar Reddy hatched a conspiracy to murder Vivekananda Reddy as he had opposed the Kadapa Lok Sabha ticket to Avinash Reddy.
The MP, however, denied the charges of the CBI stating that it had gone only by the confessional statement of Sheik Dastagiri, one of the killers, and ignored several other key evidences in the case.
