YSR Congress party MP from Kadapa and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy’s cousin Y S Avinash Reddy failed to get a reprieve in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, when it rejected his plea for an urgent hearing on his anticipatory bail petition in the Y S Vivekananda Reddy murder case.
A day after avoiding the interrogation by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for at least three days, Avinash moved a petition in the Supreme Court for an urgent hearing to issue a a direction to Telangana high court to grant him anticipatory bail.
Avinash’s counsel made a mention before the Supreme Court for taking up the petition for an urgent hearing, but the Supreme Court asked him to give it in writing why he wants an urgent hearing. The court did not fix any date for hearing his petition.
Earlier, the Telangana high court refused to grant anticipatory bail to Avinash immediately and adjourned the hearing to June 5 on account of summer vacation, without giving him any relief.
The CBI, which is probing the murder of Vivekananda Reddy, questioned Avinash four times till now.
On Monday, the agency asked him to appear before it on Tuesday for further questioning, but the Kadapa MP did not turn up, saying he was preoccupied with other engagements in the constituency.
The CBI served fresh summons to him asking him to appear before it on May 19. Fearing arrest after questioning, Avinash moved the Supreme Court to press for anticipatory bail.
On Monday, the CBI asked him to appear before it the next day under Section 160 of the CrPC but the Kadapa MP did not turn up.
He sent a message that he would be able to make himself available after four days since he was too busy with engagements which had been scheduled already.
Though the CBI obliged his request and asked him to appear before it on 19 May, Avinash Reddy, apparently apprehending arrest, moved the Supreme Court in a last-ditch effort.
In his petition with the high court, Avinash Reddy had argued that he had nothing to do with Vivekananda Reddy’s murder but was framed based on the statement of an accused, Dastagiri, who had turned into an approver.
But the CBI said in its counter that it had other evidence besides Dastagiri’s statement that Avinash Reddy had a role in the murder.
The CBI said that Avinash Reddy, his father Bhaskar Reddy, Devireddy Sivasankar Reddy, Udaya Kumar Reddy, and Yerra Gangi Reddy played key roles in destroying evidence at the residence of Vivekananda Reddy where the latter was done to death, and later tried to paint it as a case of death occurring due to cardiac arrest.
Yerra Gangi Reddy, the prime accused in the case, whose bail was cancelled by the Telangana High Court, surrendered before the CBI on 5 May.
The investigating agency then produced him before the Special Court for CBI cases, which remanded him to judicial custody till 2 June.