In an interesting twist to the investigation into the murder of former minister and ex-MP Y S Vivekananda Reddy, the Supreme Court on Monday ordered the change of the investigating officer of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the grounds that he has failed to speed up the probe into the case.
A Supreme Court bench headed by Justice M R Shah stated that the status report submitted by the CBI on the progress of the investigation into the Viveka murder case has revealed that there has been absolutely no progress in the case.
The bench ordered that the CBI officer Ram Singh, who has been investigating the case, be immediately shifted, and the probe be entrusted to another officer.
Interestingly, Devireddy Tulasamma, the wife of one of the accused, Devidreddy Shiv Shankar Reddy, filed a petition in the Supreme Court on Monday, asking for a change in the investigating officer, who she alleged has been harassing the accused and forcing them to give a witness against Kadapa MP Y S Avinash Reddy.
The Supreme Court bench wondered how long the case would drag on.
"The status report of the CBI says the murder took place due to political rivalry, but we feel there is a large-scale conspiracy behind the murder. The CBI has not taken this into consideration," the judge felt.
He said there should be some logical end to any case.
"The CBI has been repeating the same old things in its reports. This is not correct. And there is no question of granting bail to any of the accused," he said.
Refusing to go into the merits of the case, the judge said the CBI's charge that the murder had political nature alone was not enough to convict the accused.
"It needs to speed up the investigation," he said and posted the case to April 10th.