The Supreme Court will hear on Tuesday (June 13) Dr. Suneetha Narreddy’s plea seeking the cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to YSR Congress Party’s Lok Sabha member Y S Avinash Reddy by the Telangana High Court on May 31, 2023.
Dr. Suneetha Narreddy is daughter of deceased Y S Vivekanand Reddy. Vivekanand Reddy was uncle of present Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy and brother of late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy.
Asking senior advocate Sidharth Luthra if he was seeking the cancellation of anticipatory bail granted to Avinash Reddy by the high court, a vacation bench of Justice Aniruddha Bose and Justice Rajesh Bindal posted the matter for hearing on June 13.
Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared for the petitioner Suneetha Narreddy who challenged the May 31 Telangana High Court order granting anticipatory bail to Avinash Reddy.
Describing Avinesh Reddy as the principal conspirator in her (Suneetha Narreddy) father murder, senior advocate Luthra told the vacation bench that an earlier bench headed by the Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud on April 24 had said that it was not a case of interim order and sent the matter to the High Court. They (accused) do not cooperate (with the investigating agency) on summons and Avinash Reddy avoids the probe on account of mother’s illness. The High Court had not granted interim protection initially.
Challenging the May 31 order of Telangana High Court granting anticipatory bail to Avinash Reddy – Lok Sabha member from Kadapa parliamentary constituency – in connection with the Y.S Vivekananda Reddy murder case, the petitioner Suneetha Narreddy has sought an “ex-parte ad interim” stay of May 31 judgment and the order. She has challenged the High Court order on different counts.
She has also sought extension of time to the CBI for completing the investigation into the larger conspiracy in the alleged murder of Vivekanand Reddy. The top court by its April 24, 2023, order had directed the CBI to conclude the investigation by June 30, 2023.
Assailing the High Court order, the Suneetha Narredyy in her petition has said that the High Court after holding a “mini trial and giving findings/making comments on the merits of the prosecution case” virtually accepted the entire case of Avinash Reddy, while disregarding the evidence collected by the CBI which is investigating the case.
Alleging non-cooperation by Avinash Reddy in the investigation of the case, the petition says that he did not appear before the investigating agency on the last three occasions despite notices by the CBI asking him to appear before it.
The petitioner Suneetha Narreddy has alleged that Avinash Reddy along with other accused has “successfully” tampered with evidence by “destroying the scene of offence in the presence of the state police and had propagated the story that the deceased had died due to a heart attack.”
The petition says that Avinash Reddy had in fact “pressurised the police not to register an FIR as a result of which only an inquest under S. 174 Cr.PC was started, in a case of cold blooded murder as is evidenced from photographs of the deceased …”
CBI took over the investigation in July 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court. The case was earlier registered at police station Pulivendula in Kadapa district (Andhra Pradesh). Late Vivekanand Reddy had represented Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency.
A month before the general elections in 2019, Vivekananda Reddy, a former MP, was found murdered at his residence at Pulivendula on March 15, 2019.