Former official faults CBI for not taking into account intelligence report on Vivekananda Reddy’s murder

A.B. Venkateswara Rao writes a letter to Director of the Central agency on the sensational case

The former Director-General, Intelligence, A.B. Venkateswara Rao, has appealed to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to collect the intelligence report on former minister and Member of Parliament Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy’s murder case.

The former MP was found in a pool of blood in his house in Pulivendula in Kadapa district on the night of March 14, 2019.

Rumours spread that Mr. Reddy, brother of former Chief Minister Y.S. Rajashekara Reddy, died of cardiac arrest, and also as an accidental death (caused due to fall in bathroom). However, doctors confirmed that injuries were found on the body which caused the death.

The local police registered a case and later it was transferred to Crime Investigation Department (CID) and to the Special Investigation Team (SIT). Following a writ petition filed by the victim’s family members, the case was handed over to CBI in March last year.

Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Sunitha expressed concern over the slow pace of investigation and for not booking the culprits responsible for her father’s death.Leaders of various political parties questioned the government on why the murder case of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s uncle was pending since two years.

In a letter to the CBI Director and the Joint Director, Mr. Venkateswara Rao said the AP Intelligence Department deployed its personnel to gather information on the same day of the crime, which was shared with the investigators.

“An Intelligence head constable and a home guard visited the spot, even before the local police reached the scene of offence, to gather information on the death. But, they were not allowed inside the house by the family members, including an MP,” Mr. Venkateswara Rao said.

“A few months later, I contacted the CBI officer, who is monitoring the investigation of Mr. Vivekananda Reddy’s murder case over phone and tried to share the information on the sensational case. The CBI official said he will take the information for the Intelligence sleuths, but there was no response. I contacted the officer twice, but there was no action,” Mr. Venkateswara Rao said.

“It was surprising that the CBI team, which was probing the murder case, has not taken any interest when an officer of the rank of DGP, who served as DG, Intelligence, at the time of the occurrence of crime, came forward to give information to solve the sensational case, which was still unsolved,” the senior police officer said.

Mr. Venkateswara Rao appealed to the CBI to collect the file from Intelligence Department on the former MP’s murder and examine the officers concerned, to solve the case at the earliest.