5 Feb 2024 3:44 PM GMT
The Supreme Court on Monday (February 5) asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to file digital copies of the case diaries related to the murder of former Andhra Pradesh minister YS Vivekananda Reddy.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Dipankar Datta was hearing a batch of pleas connected with the Vivekananda Reddy murder, including a petition filed by his daughter challenging the pre-arrest bail granted by the Telangana High Court to YS Avinash Reddy, an MP from Telangana's ruling Yuvajana Sramika Rythu Congress Party (YSRCP) and her cousin.
In July last year, while seeking the response of the Central Bureau of Investigation to Suneetha Nareddy's plea challenging Avinash Reddy's anticipatory bail, the top court had directed the central agency to file, in a sealed cover, a copy of the charge-sheet, as well as that of original case files. This directive was issued after Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the petitioner, pointed out that CBI had neither filed its counter-affidavit in response to Nareddy's plea, nor placed on record the charge-sheet. The senior counsel also urged the court to compel the production of the case diaries, arguing that there was a lot of material that had not come on record.
Today, after providing a brief conspectus of the case, Luthra insisted that the batch of petitions would have to be heard at length. Agreeing, Justice Khanna said, If we have to list it for hearing, we'll do that."
At the senior counsel's request, the court also insisted on CBI's compliance with its direction to file the case files in a sealed cover. When Additional Solicitor General SV Raju pointed out that the probe agency had complied with the order by bringing the files to the court, Justice Khanna asked it to file digital copies of the documents if possible. With this instruction, the bench directed the proceedings to be adjourned until the week commencing April 22.
Last year, the bench had also issued notice in a petition by T Gangi Reddy, the prime accused in the Vivekananda murder, challenging an order of the Telangana High Court directing him to surrender before the Central Bureau of Investigation. On his behalf, Senior Advocate Dama Seshadri Naidu today argued for his petition to be heard sooner, separate from the other pleas. However, Luthra protested against the proposal to de-tag the matters, saying, "His bail is connected to my challenge."
Justice Khanna told Naidu, "We'll not be able to give you a date before that. This is the shortest date possible."
Background
YS Vivekananda Reddy, a member of the Indian National Congress and brother of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy was found murdered at his residence in Pulivendula in Kadapa district in 2019. The case was initially probed by a special investigation team (SIT) of the state crime investigation department, but was handed over in July 2020 to the Central Bureau of Investigation, which filed a charge sheet in October 2021 and a supplementary charge sheet in January 2022.
In November 2022, the apex court had directed the trial of Vivekananda Reddy's murder to be transferred from Andhra Pradesh to a special CBI court in Hyderabad, noting that the apprehensions raised by his wife and daughter regarding derailment of a fair trial were reasonable.
In April, the Central Bureau of Investigation issued a summons to Avinash Reddy, hours after arresting YS Bhaskar Reddy, his father and uncle of Andhra chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy from his residence. In anticipation of his arrest, Avinash Reddy approached the high court. In a relief to Avinash Reddy, a single judge of the high court reserved its order till Tuesday, April 25, while granting him protection from arrest till then. However, this order was initially stayed and later set aside by the Supreme Court, saying that it 'stultified' the investigation. A bench headed by Chief Justice Chandrachud pronounced -
“The findings of the high court are clearly premature. Having due regard to what has been stated by CBI, we are of the view that high court has misapplied itself and passed an extraordinary order. An order of this nature will harm the investigation. There is no warrant for the high court that a person investigated should have questions in written or printed form. Such orders of the court allow grave prejudice to investigation.”
In May, observing that no direct evidence was available to prove his participation in a larger conspiracy, the Telangana High Court granted anticipatory bail to the YS Avinash Reddy. In its order, the single-judge bench noted, “From the investigation done so far, there is no allegation at any point of time CBI claimed about interference of the petitioner in the investigation and involved in tampering of evidence and threatening the witnesses and the complainant, except the allegation touching the destruction of scene of offence.”
This order was challenged by preferring an appeal by special leave before the Supreme Court, as was an order of the Telangana High Court directing T Gangi Reddy to be released by the Central Bureau of Investigation on July 1.
Case Details
Suneetha Narreddy v. YS Avinash Reddy & Anr. | SLP (Crl) No. 7449/2023 and other connected matters