CBI summons Kadapa MP Avinash Reddy for questioning in Vivekananda Reddy killing case

The CBI has asked Lok Sabha MP from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh Avinash Reddy to appear for questioning on January 28 in connection with the killing of Vivekananda Reddy, the younger brother of late chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, in 2019, officials said Wednesday.

The agency had earlier summoned him on Tuesday but the MP sought more time, following which the CBI has given him a new date of January 28, they said.

According to the CBI charge sheet, Vivekananda Reddy was allegedly seeking a parliamentary poll ticket for himself or Y S Sharmila (sister of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy) or Y S Vijayamma (Jagan Mohan Reddy's mother) instead of the incumbent Avinash Reddy from the Kadapa Lok Sabha constituency.

Avinash is a cousin of Jagan Mohan Reddy.

''Hence it is suspected that MP Avinash Reddy has got him (Vivekananda Reddy) killed through his henchman D Siva Shankar Reddy, a leader of the ruling YSR Congress party. Investigation on this aspect is still underway,'' the CBI had said in its charge sheet.

The CBI had arrested Shankar Reddy in November last year and filed a supplementary charge sheet against him in January.

The central agency has said Shankar Reddy offered Rs 10 crore to one K Gangadhar Reddy for taking responsibility of Vivekananda Reddy's murder.

The CBI has kept the probe open to unravel the role of other accused persons in the destruction of scene of crime and larger conspiracy of murder.

It has so far named 248 persons as witnesses in the case and attached their statements.

''Investigation revealed that Vivekananda Reddy was murdered as a result of well-planned conspiracy by T Gangi Reddy alias Yerra Gangi Reddy and Shaik Dastagiri, Yaditi Sunil Yadav and Gajala Uma Shankar Reddy, who all had separate and personal grudges/ motives to be a part of the conspiracy of murder," the CBI had said in the first charge sheet.

Dastagiri, who once worked as driver of Vivekananda Reddy, later turned approver and gave a confessional statement before the junior civil judge, Proddatur.

Citing the confessional statement, the CBI said the murder was executed by Gangi Reddy, with the help of Sunil Yadav, Uma Shankar Reddy and Dastagiri.

The conspiracy for murder was hatched by Gangi Reddy a month prior to the offence.

The CBI had filed a charge sheet in the murder case on October 26, 2021 and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on January 31, 2022.

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