CBI: Jagan Mohan Reddy told about YS Vivekananda Reddy murder earlier than most

HYDERABAD: The CBI on Friday said Andhra Pradesh chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy was informed about his uncle and former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy's murder in 2019 much before the news became public.
This is the first time Jagan's name has cropped up in the sensational murder that took place on March 15, 2019, in the midst of the Lok Sabha election campaigning.

The CBI made the claim while opposing YSRCP's Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy's anticipatory bail plea in the Telangana high court. The central agency said it suspected a larger conspiracy in the case. The MP and his father, YS Bhaskar Reddy who is in judicial remand, are being seen as the prime accused in the case.
The development comes at a time when Jagan is in Delhi to attend the Niti Ayog meeting and is also likely to attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building on May 28. On Friday evening, he met Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The vacation court of Justice M Laxman asked senior counsel L Ravi Chander who was appearing for Dr N Suneetha Reddy, Vivekananda's daughter, as to who informed Jagan about the death. The counsel said that CBI was best suited to answer the query. The CBI counsel would argue his case on Saturday morning.
In its affidavit, CBI said it got an internet protocol detail records (IPDR) analysis done on Avinash Reddy's WhatsApp calls and chats. As the analysis showed that the MP was very active on his phone before and after the murder, it wanted to know his role in informing Jagan about Vivekananda's death.
"This aspect needs to be investigated and for this, we want to take Avinash into custody and interrogate him," the agency said in its counter. "He has been evasive in his replies when he was summoned in the past and, of late, he has been avoiding the investigation."
The CBI added that the outside world came to know about Vivekananda's death through his personal assistant, MV Krishna Reddy, at 6.15 am on March 15, 2019. The call analysis revealed that Avinash was active on WhatsApp and had exchanged voice calls just before the murder between 12.27 am to 1.10 am.
"Investigation has already established that the four accused assailants, who murdered Viveka in the intervening night of March 14/15, 2019, had trespassed into the house of Viveka around 1.30 am on March 15, 2019," CBI said.
"Further the location of the mobile phone of one the assailants Y Sunil Yadav was found inside the house of YS Avinash Reddy/ YS Bhaskar Reddy before and after the commission of murder, particularly at 1.58 am."
The call analysis has further revealed that Avinash had WhatsApp conversations from 4.11 am onwards on March 15, it added.
Urging the court to dismiss Avinash's plea, the probe agency said it gave multiple notices asking him to appear for questioning, but he was deliberately avoiding them. "We are bound by the deadline fixed by Supreme Court which asked us to complete the probe and file the final charge sheet by June 30," the CBI said in its affidavit.
Earlier in the day, senior counsel Uma Maheswara Rao who argued for Avinash said the CBI had not arrested him in the last three years and was raising issues only after he filed an anticipatory bail plea.
"CBI is ignoring several aspects of the issue and is proceeding in a direction only to implicate Avinash," he alleged.