Hyderabad, April 19 (). The CBI on Wednesday questioned Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy for nearly eight hours in connection with the murder of former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy.
Avinash Reddy, cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jamgan Mohan Reddy, left the CBI regional office in Hyderabad in the evening. The CBI has asked him to appear again on Thursday.
As per the Telangana High Court order, the MP has to appear before the CBI every day till April 25. According to media reports, this was the 5th time that YSR Congress Party MPs appeared before the CBI.
The Telangana High Court on Tuesday ordered the CBI not to arrest Avinash Reddy till April 25. The court, in its interim order on the anticipatory bail plea of the MP, had directed him to appear before the CBI daily till April 25.
The CBI had called Avinash Reddy for questioning on April 17, but the agency had deferred the questioning twice due to the hearing of his anticipatory bail plea.
The final order on the anticipatory bail plea will be pronounced on April 25. Meanwhile, the CBI also questioned Avinash Reddy’s father YS Bhaskar Reddy and another accused Uday Kumar Reddy for five and a half hours.
A day after the CBI court sent Bhaskar Reddy and Uday Kumar Reddy to CBI custody, the central agency took their custody from Chanchalguda Central Jail. CBI brought him to its office after medical examination at Osmania General Hospital.
As per reports, the CBI arrested Bhaskar Reddy on April 16, while his follower Uday Kumar Reddy was arrested on April 14 from Pulivendula town in Cuddapah district of Andhra Pradesh. After this both were brought to Hyderabad from where a court sent them to judicial custody.
It was not immediately clear whether Avinash Reddy was questioned in the presence of Bhaskar Reddy and Udaya Kumar Reddy. It is believed that the CBI officials interrogated Vivekananda Reddy on the reasons behind his murder. He was reportedly asked why he publicized that he died of cardiac arrest.
Vivekananda Reddy was murdered at his residence in Pulivendula on 15 March 2019, a few days before the elections. The 68-year-old former state minister and ex-MP was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged into his house and killed him.
The CBI took over the investigation in the case in 2020 on the direction of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, while hearing a petition by Sunita Reddy, daughter of Vivekananda Reddy, who had raised suspicions on some relatives.
The Supreme Court had transferred the case to Hyderabad in November last year after Sunitha Reddy raised doubts about the fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh.
FZ/ANM
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