SC ready to shift Viveka murder case out of AP

New Delhi: Dr Narreddy Sunitha's quest for justice in her father YS Vivekananda Reddy's murder case, took a significant turn on Wednesday with the Supreme Court seeking to know petitioner's choice of state to which the case should be shifted, if necessary. Both Sunitha and the CBI sought transfer of the case in view of the non-cooperation of officials and impediments being created to the investigation in AP ever since. While Sunitha had no objection to any state other than AP, CBI was against even Hyderabad in view of the threat to the witnesses. Dr Sunitha has been knocking all possible doors in the last two years complaining of hurdles being created in the CBI probe into the murder as the perpetrators of the crime were people of high positions and were powerful enough to derail the justice system itself.

Both the CBI and Sunitha filed petitions in the SC seeking transfer of the case out of AP in view of the impediments being caused to the investigation. While Sunitha stated she had no objection to any place other than AP, the CBI sought the case to be transferred to Karnataka and not to Hyderabad as it apprehended threat to the witnesses even there.

Sunitha sought a timeline for the case to be completed too. When questioned by the Supreme Court, the CBI stated that non-cooperation of the local officials was delaying the conclusion of the investigation. The SC said it would deliver a detailed judgment on Friday.

It may be recalled that the AP High Court, in 2020, ordered that the state government hand over the murder case to the Central Bureau of Investigation keeping the tardy pace of the investigation by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) since the incident took place on March 15, 2019, in mind. Justice U Durga Prasad Rao had said inter-state criminals could be involved in the murder and the investigation could not be dragged further as SIT had enough time to dig out the facts but the outcome had been insignificant.

But, the CBI too found the case getting stonewalled due to 'non-cooperation' by the authorities' and alleged threats were being meted out to the investigating officers. Petitions were filed against the officers by some of the accused that they were being forced to accept their guilt through physical torture. The Supreme Court on Tuesday expressed surprise whether the accused in the murder case of Y S Vivekananda Reddy are threatening even the investigating officer. A bench of SC made these comments after the CBI said there was life threat to the accused and witnesses in the Viveka murder case and even the investigating officer received threats. One of the witnesses, Kalluri Gangadhar Reddy alias Kuwait Gangadhar Reddy (49), had died under suspicious circumstances after writing to then Anantapur SP that he was being blackmailed by the CBI. A local investigating officer, Saankaraiah, secured a promotion and changed tack to blame the CBI. All these issues and the submission of the investigating agency that Sunitha's apprehensions had enough substance in seeking a shift made the SC rule the transfer of the case.