SC transfers Viveka case to Hyderabad

PNS|Vijayawada

The Supreme Court division bench on Tuesday transferred the trial in the murder case of former minister of combined Andhra Pradesh and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s uncle YS Vivekananda Reddy to a Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court in Hyderabad.

Taking up the petition filed by Vivekananda’s daughter Dr Narreddy Sunitha Reddy, a division bench of the Supreme Court Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna, said it was a case to be transferred to a state other than Andhra Pradesh, in order to expedite the CBI probe into the murder case.

The bench felt that the petitioner has the fundamental right to get justice and it cannot be said that the apprehension of the petitioner that there may not be a fair trial or that there is a larger conspiracy is imaginary. The Supreme Court further said, “Criminal trial, if biased, criminal justice will be at stake.” The bench further ordered that all charge sheets and supplementary charge sheets will be transferred from Kadapa to Hyderabad.

The first information report (FIR) alleging a larger conspiracy surrounding Vivekananda Reddy’s death and destruction of evidence in the case will be probed by the CBI. Vivekananda Reddy, who was part of the Indian National Congress, left the party to join the YSRC party. He served as agriculture minister in the combined Andhra Pradesh government.

On March 15, 2019, Vivekananda Reddy was hacked to death at his residence in Pulivendula. In 2020, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had transferred the case to the CBI.