Where is Shaik Shamim, Viveka’s second wife?

PNS|Vijayawada

The now four-year-long investigation into the murder of YS Vivekananda Reddy, former Kadapa MP, and brother of former chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy, is yet to figure out what exactly happened and who were the culprits. Starting from Special Investigation Team (SIT), the probe landed in the hands of the CBI but none of them questioned key persons like Shaik Shamim, a Muslim woman from Kadapa, who is said to be the second wife of YS Vivekananda Reddy.

Surprisingly, the probe did not even find out where Shamim is. Questions like ‘Whether she is alive?’ and ‘What happened to her son?’ have not been probed to date, raising questions about the direction in which the probe is moving.

Many an eyebrow has been raised as nothing is known as of date about Shamim or her seven-year-old son who appear to be the key persons around whom the case appears to be revolving.

According to an affidavit submitted by D Tulasamma, w/o D Siva Shankar Reddy, in the First Class Judicial Magistrate Court, Pulivendula on February 21, 2022, the investigating agency collected material which stated that Vivekananda Reddy had married one Shaik Shamim in Hyderabad and that they have a son named Aslam. She further claimed that Vivekananda Reddy promised to deposit Rs 2 crore in the name of their son from the amount to be received by the deceased from the settlement of a land dispute in Bangalore.

While it is believed that Shamim, the ‘active’ wife of Vivekananda, and her son Aslam are central to the case, this has been kept a secret. Only Vivekananda’s family and his close associates are aware of it.

It seems that the investigating agency has not taken into account the implications and ramifications of the deceased politician’s active second wife and her son.

It is the responsibility of the investigating agency to reveal certain facts like whether Shamim and her son Aslam are alive and if so where they are presently residing. More pertinently, the investigating agency should have delved deeper into the case to find whether they were the trigger for family disputes in Vivekananda Reddy’s family.

According to sources, 34-year-old Shaik Shamim belongs to Simhadripuram in Balavanuru Mandal. She completed her post-graduation in biotechnology in Chennai and is living with her four-year-old son at Prakash Nagar in Kadapa. Vivekananda Reddy was 68-year-old and no one knows where he met Shamim, who is 34 years younger than him, and how he got married to her. After coming to know of his second marriage, the police started enquiring from that angle also as this is learnt to have created a major tussle within the family over property issues.

However, Vivekananda Reddy’s first wife Sowbhagyalakshmi did not mention anything about disputes because of his second marriage, in their complaint to the police over the murder.

The police noticed that YS Reddy received some messages for the last time before his death from a phone number registered with Shamim’s name. Police reveal that they could find only one message as the remaining three were deleted. What was mentioned in those deleted messages is still a big question mark. Based on the preliminary evidence, the police have come to the conclusion that only close associates were involved in the murder. Cleaning the bathroom soon after the murder and bandaging wounds further support this assumption.

As far as the course of the investigation is concerned, the absence of any disclosure whatsoever by the investigating agency on the status and role of Shamim and her son suggests that it is going on in a lackadaisical manner, leaving aside such an important clog in the wheel in terms of getting at the root of the case.