The Telangana high court on Friday posted the hearing on bail petition of Sunil Yadav in Y S Vivekananda Reddy murder case to September 8. Sunil Yadav is the Accused 2 in the murder case.

Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Suneetha Reddy impleaded in the bail petition opposing granting of bail. However, she accepted the bail petition to Accused 1 Shaik Dastagiri, who admitted having killed Vivekananda Reddy.

The CBI, which also opposed granting bail to Sunil Yadav, told the court that it had found Sunil close to the incident on April 29, 2021 during the early hours. The CBI found it through the google takeout. But the same CBI had admitted that the google takeout was proved to be wrong in its petition on January 23, 2023.

Sunil Yadav’s advocate told the court that the CBI’s google takeout was proved to be wrong and it can not be the basis for denying bail to his client. He wanted the court to grant bail to his client, who is not connected with the murder.

The advocate also found fault with Suneetha Reddy for impleading in the petition as she did not implead in the petition filed by the A1 Shaik Dastagiri. He also told the court that a private petition against Suneetha Reddy and her husband Rajasekhar Reddy was pending in the court. Sunil Yadav’s advocate further told the court that Dr Suneetha Reddy was not a victim in the case but her father was a victim. The court posted the case for next hearing on September 8.

Meanwhile, the court also heard the petition by retired IAS officer Ajay Kallam stating that his statement was misrepresented and misunderstood. He said that the CBI had distorted some of the facts that he had admitted to them. He wanted the relief from the CBI report, which took his statement as witness to the case.

The court had directed the CBI to file its affidavit and posted the case for next hearing on September 15.

The bail petition of prime accused in former minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy’s murder, Sivashankar Reddy, was posted to Monday. The petition came up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Friday before the bench of Justice C T Ravi Kumar and Justice Sanjeev Kumar.

Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Dr Narreddy Suneetha’s advocate told the bench that there were four petitions related to the case before a different bench. He also told the bench that there were directions from the Chief Justice bench earlier and it was not proper to take up the bail petition now.

Sivashankar Reddy’s advocate intervened and said that this was a different bail petition and should not be connected with the main case. He said that the earlier bail petition of Sivashankar Reddy was dismissed six months ago, and the petitioner was eligible to file another petition now.

Responding to the arguments, the bench told the advocates that it would hear what Dr Suneetha’s advocate wanted to say in this petition. The bench directed Dr Suneetha’s advocate to submit his statement or any references including the directions from the Chief Justice Bench.

It was then Dr Suneetha’s advocate submitted the records to the two-member bench. Justice Ravi Kumar and Justice Sanjeev Kumar told the advocates that they would examine these issues and resume arguments on Monday.

Meanwhile, the case is taking twists and turns both on the investigation side and on the accused side. The investigating agency – CBI – filed its final charge sheet on June 30, wherein it had accused Kadapa MP Y S Avinash Reddy, as A8 in the case. It charged Avinash Reddy as the main conspirator for the murder and attributed political motives.

On his part, Avinash Reddy wrote a letter to the CBI director seeking fresh investigation into the case. He wanted the CBI to investigate impartially and accused the investigating officials of taking the political stand of the opposition TDP.

The Supreme Court on Monday heard the miscellaneous petition of former minister Y S Vivekananda Reddy’s PA M V Krishna Reddy. It may be mentioned here that Krishna Reddy had filed the miscellaneous petition pleading with the court to treat him as a victim in the Vivekananda Reddy murder case.

He told the court that he had informed the police about the murder and the cases were registered based on his information. Hence, he wanted the court to treat him as the victim in the case and not as accused.

The CBI had closed the investigation in the murder case and had submitted its final report to the Telangana high court as per schedule on June 30. The CBI had questioned several persons during the investigation and named Kadapa MP Y S Avinash Reddy as accused 8 and his father Bhaskara Reddy as accused 7 in the case.

While Bhaskara Reddy was arrested and now is in jail, the CBI could not arrest Avinash Reddy, as he secured anticipatory bail from the high court. However, the CBI had grilled him for several days before naming him as A8 and submitting its report to the CBI court in Nampally of Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, Krishna Reddy approached the Supreme Court seeking his exclusion from the accused list. He wanted the court to consider him as a victim in the murder case. Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Dr Narreddy Sunitha Reddy also filed a petition in the Supreme Court opposing Krishna Reddy’s miscellaneous petition.

The court said it would not take other issues into consideration but would examine his plea for consideration as victim and not accused. The court had then admitted the petition posted the case for hearing on July 5.

Police in Andhra Pradesh’s Pulivendula town have booked Sheikh Dastagiri, an accused-turned-approver in former minister Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy’s murder case, for allegedly assaulting a minor boy.

Acting on a complaint of a woman that Dastagiri had illegally detained and assaulted her son, police rescued the boy from his residence in Jayamma Colony in Kadapa district’s Pulivendula town.

The boy was shifted to Government Area Hospital in Pulivendula. The victim’s relatives and functionaries of ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) reached the hospital. They demanded justice for the victim’s family.

Kullayamma said that she and her husband had taken a Rs 40,000 loan on interest from Dastagiri six months ago. The couple had been paying interest every week. As they could not pay the interest for the last 10 days, Dastargiri took away their son and detained him at his house. He also allegedly tortured the boy.

She said he also threatened them that if they revealed this to anybody, they would have to face serious consequences.

Police registered a case on the woman’s complaint. Dastagiri was also called to the police station. He, however, denied the allegations.

Dastagiri was working as driver for Vivekananda Reddy, who was murdered at his residence in Pulivendula on March 15, 2019. He was one of the accused arrested by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI). He, however, turned an approver in the case.

Vivekananda Reddy was uncle of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy.

The CBI recently told the trial court that it has listed Kadapa MP Y. S. Avinash Reddy as one of the accused. The central agency has already arrested Avinash Reddy’s father Y. S. Bhaskar Reddy, a cousin of Vivekananda Reddy.