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The Andhra Pradesh High Court recently dismissed the criminal petition filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) seeking cancellation of bail granted to Yerra Gangi Reddy, a prime suspect in Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case.

Vivekananda Reddy, an Indian National Congress leader, had been brutally murdered and found at his residence in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh on 15 March 2019.

Rejecting CBI's claim that Gangi Reddy was threatening some witnesses, the bench of Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy said, "the prosecution failed to establish with any acceptable and authenticated material that A-1 (Gangi Reddy) has been interfering with the course of investigation or influencing the witnesses or tampering with the prosecution evidence to cancel his bail."

Court found CBI's plea devoid of any legal ground required to cancel the bail granted to Gangi Reddy. However, Court noted that the material that was produced by the prosecution prima facie showed that the other persons who are not the accused in the crime are making an attempt to contact Shaik Dastagiri, an approver in this case, to not cooperate with the investigating agency.

Therefore, pointing out that Dastagiri had stated before Court that there a threat to his life from some persons, Court asked the investigating agency to take adequate steps to protect his life and also to provide protection to other witnesses in this case to ensure fair investigation and trial of the case.

In January 2020, Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter filed a writ petition in High Court seeking a CBI investigation and expressed doubts over the investigation by SIT constituted by the State Government. She alleged suspicions of Y. S. Avinash Reddy, who was one of the first to arrive at the murder scene.

Avinash Reddy is the son of YS Bhaskar Reddy, brother of Vivekananda Reddy and cousin of Jagan Mohan Reddy, the present Chief Minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh.

Thereafter, the CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of the High Court. 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 matter is yet to conclude.

Case Title: Criminal Petition No.788 of 2021