Amaravati: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has served fresh notice to Kadapa MP Y. S. Avinash Reddy, directing him to appear before it on March 10 for questioning in the Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case.
He was earlier asked to appear before CBI officials on Monday (March 5) but he informed the agency that he would not be able to appear on the day due to a busy schedule.
The CBI officials, late on Sunday night, served a fresh notice at the residence of Avinash Reddy at Pulivendula in Kadapa district, directing him to appear before the agency in Hyderabad on March 10.
Avinash Reddy, cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, has already appeared before the investigation agency twice for questioning.
The MP appeared before the CBI in Hyderabad on January 28 and February 24 for questioning.
Meanwhile, Avinash Reddy said he would appear before CBI on March 10 while his father Y. S. Bhaskar Reddy would appear on March 12.
The central agency, which is probing the four-year-old case, has asked Bhaskar Reddy to appear before its officials at Kadapa Central prison on March 12.
Bhaskara Reddy was earlier summoned on February 23 for questioning but he requested the CBI to postpone the questioning to another day as he has some prior commitments.
Vivekananda Reddy, who was found murdered at his house in Kadapa district in 2019, was the paternal uncle of Jaganmohan Reddy and Avinash Reddy.
The questioning of the MP and his father assumed significance in the wake of an affidavit filed by the CBI in Telangana High Court last month while opposing the bail petition of Sunil Yadav, one of the accused.
The investigation agency stated that Avinash Reddy, Bhaskara Reddy and their follower D. Siva Sankar Reddy had hatched a criminal conspiracy to kill Vivekananda Reddy over conflicting political ambitions.
Avinash Reddy has denied the allegations and claimed that he and his father were in no way involved.
Vivekananda Reddy was younger brother of former chief minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy, father of Jagan Mohan Reddy.
He was found murdered mysteriously at his residence at Pulivendula in Kadapa district on March 15, 2019, a month ahead of 2019 general elections.
The 68-year-old former state minister and former MP was alone at his house when unidentified persons barged in and killed him. He was killed hours before he was to launch YSR Congress Party’s election campaign in Kadapa.
Though three Special Investigation Teams (SITs) conducted the probe they failed to solve the mystery.
The CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court while hearing a petition of Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Sunitha Reddy, who raised suspicion about some relatives.
In November last year, the Supreme Court transferred to a CBI court in Hyderabad the trial and probe into the larger conspiracy behind the murder. The apex court observed that doubts raised by Sunitha Reddy about getting a fair trial and investigation in Andhra Pradesh were reasonable.
–IANS