Savvy Thakur
Published on: 29 November 2022 at 19:30 IST
Supreme Court transferred the trial in the murder case of YS Vivekananda Reddy, former Lok Sabha Member of Parliament and uncle of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy to a Special CBI Court in Hyderabad.
A plea from the daughter of Reddy requesting that the CBI give instructions on how to speed up the investigation into the murder case was being heard by a Bench consisting of Justices MR Shah and BV Nagarathna.
“It cannot be said that apprehension of the petitioner that there may not be a fair trial or that there is a larger conspiracy is imaginary,” it stated when it ordered the transfer of the case. The petitioner is entitled to fundamental justice.
Because justice needs to be seen to be done as well as done, this case should be transferred to a state other than Andhra Pradesh. If there is bias in a criminal trial, criminal justice will be at risk.
In addition, the court directed the transfer of all chargesheets and supplementary chargesheets to Hyderabad. The CBI will investigate the first information report (FIR), which makes claims about a larger conspiracy that led to Reddy’s death and the destruction of evidence in the case.
Reddy joined the YSR Congress party, which is led by his brother and former AP Chief Minister YS Rajashekara Reddy, after leaving the Indian National Congress. He was the state government’s Agriculture Minister.
In March 2019, he was stabbed to death at his Kadapa home. The CBI was assigned the murder investigation by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in 2020.