Y.S. Vijayamma, senior YSR Congress Party leader and mother of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, on Monday said that she strongly wished to see the killers of her brother-in-law Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy brought to justice.
In an open letter released on Monday, Ms. Vijayamma said that her son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy and daughter Y.S. Sharmila also wished to see justice done in the case. She further alleged that a section of the media was resorting to yellow journalism in the case in an attempt to drive a wedge between Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Sunitha and the Y.S. family.
“A section of the media, unable to support the TDP which is fast losing its political relevance, has been spreading a malicious campaign against the Y.S. family. At a time when the TDP has given up and has withdrawn from contesting in ZPTC and MPTC elections, a section of the media is blowing up the remarks made by Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter out of proportion,” Ms. Vijayamma said in the letter.
“Apprehensions made by Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter over the delay in the case are being distorted by the media, but we are equally keen on seeing that the culprits are brought to book,” she said, adding that a prominent journalist of a vernacular newspaper was repeating lies over and over again in the hope that people will come to believe them.
“Vivekananda’s murder took place in March 2019. Chandrababu Naidu was in power for over two months after the incident. Suspicions were raised against Adinarayana Reddy, who was a Minister in the TDP Cabinet and is now in the BJP. Pawan Kalyan, who was recently sharing the dais with Adinarayana Reddy during a campaign for the Tirupati bypoll, alleged that Jagan was doing nothing to further the probe into Vivekananda’s death, despite knowing well that the case is now being investigated by the CBI,” Ms. Vijayamma said.
She hit out at the TDP and the media for ‘spreading lies’ over the attack on Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy at the Vizag airport in October 2018. “Jagan has written letters to the Centre to expedite investigation into these cases,” Ms. Vijayamma said.
Ms. Vijayamma said that her son, despite being Chief Minister, could do little to expedite the probe into Vivekananda Reddy’s death. “Jagan cannot get involved while a Central agency is investigating the case. When my husband died in 2009, we were unsure whether it was an accident or if he was murdered, but we were not in a position to do anything,” she said.
‘No differences in family’
Ms. Vijayamma also clarified that there were no differences between Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy and her daughter Y.S. Sharmila over the latter’s decision to float her own political party in Telangana.
“Jagan had made it clear that he would not be able to lead the YSR Congress Party in Telangana as he felt that it was important to have cordial relations with Chief Ministers of neighbouring States for the betterment of Andhra Pradesh. Sharmila decided that she should be in the service of people of Telangana as a daughter-in-law of the State. Just because they hold different opinions does not mean that there are differences between the two of them,” Ms. Vijayamma said, and lamented that it was unfortunate on the part of the senior journalist to be levelling false allegations against her family.
