Murder Of Ex-CM’s Brother| Telangana HC Grants Anticipatory Bail To MP Y.S. Avinash Reddy
The Vacation Bench of the Telangana High Court today granted Anticipatory bail to the Member of Parliament, Y.S. Avinash Reddy. The MP had moved the High Court apprehending his arrest in the case of the murder of his paternal uncle Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy. The High Court while granting the bail stated that the entire case rests upon hearsay evidence and assumptive evidence and that no direct evidence is available against the petitioner to prove his participation in a larger conspiracy.
The Single Judge Vacation Bench of Justice M. Laxman observed in its order that "From the investigation done so far, there is no allegation at any point of time CBI claimed about interference of the petitioner in the investigation and involved in tampering of evidence and threatening the witnesses and the complainant, except the allegation touching the destruction of the scene of offence. The gravity of accusation is not yet clearly brought on record by the CBI so far."
The Court stated that the CBI tried to rely upon the improved case of the witnesses and the approver. The High Court held that "In the said background, this Court does not find any justification for a custodial interrogation of the petitioner by the CBI authorities and hence, this Court inclines to extend the anticipatory bail to the petitioner with certain conditions."
In the anticipatory bail granted, the Telangana High Court has directed that in the event of Petitioner's arrest, Reddy shall be released on bail on his executing a personal bond for Rs.5,00,000. The High Court also directed that Reddy shall not leave the country without prior permission from the CBI, till the investigation is completed and shall cooperate with the investigation and shall appear before the C.B.I Police every Saturday from 10.00 am to 5.00 pm till the end of June 2023.
It is alleged that the present Petitioner along with the other accused are the key conspirators in the murder of Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy who was the brother of Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, the Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. It was submitted that the Petitioner with the other accused reached the house of the deceased, they allegedly tampered with the scene of offence by wiping out the blood in the bedroom with the help of servants and also cleaned the bedroom and changed the bed sheets. They also moved the dead body of the deceased from the bathroom to the bedroom and applied bandages and propagated the theory of heart attack.
The High Court has in its order mentioned that "Roving enquiry of evidence is unnecessary while considering the anticipatory bail application, but keeping in view of the importance of the incident and media debates, this Court is forced to consider the necessary evidence to have prima facie reasons for my conclusion."
The Court also observed that "The evidence collected by the prosecution also demonstrates that the petitioner had cooperated for the summons issued by the CBI and he had responded seven times." It was submitted by the Counsel appearing for the Petitioner that to date, Reddy was not shown as accused in connection with the alleged larger conspiracy and that he is being implicated to rope in a larger conspiracy without there being any admissible evidence which has been collected so far in the investigation and attempts are being made to frame petition with the ulterior motive to spoil his political career.
The CBI had contended that the petitioner, his father, Manohar Reddy and the other accused had tampered with the scene of offence to screen the evidence from being detected and projected the theory of a heart attack. CBI further stated that the Petitioner was conscious of the execution of the offence, but he pretended ignorance and waited for the news to leak and thereafter, he reached the scene of the offence.
The Supreme Court had on May 23, 2023, directed the Vacation Bench of the Telangana High Court to consider the Anticipatory Bail application of Member of Parliament, Y.S. Avinash Reddy. The Apex Court had expressed its displeasure and observed that the matter was heard for 2 days successively and that some orders should have been passed one way or the other.
As per the Supreme Court's Judgment dated April 24, 2023, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) was directed to complete the investigation in the present matter before June 30, 2023.
Cause Title: Y S Avinash Reddy v. The State of Telangana [CRLP 3798/2023]
Click here to read/download the Order
