YSRCP MP Avinash Reddy ‘Arrested’ by CBI, Released

YSR Congress MP YS Avinash Reddy was “arrested” by the CBI on Thursday in connection with the murder of his uncle and former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy, but he was immediately released as the Telangana High Court had earlier granted him anticipatory bail.

Avinash Reddy, who appeared before the central agency on June 3, was “arrested” by the CBI and released on bail the same day after fulfilling certain formalities, sources said.

The Lok Sabha member from Kadapa in Andhra Pradesh, who was granted anticipatory bail by the Telangana High Court on May 31, was directed to cooperate with the investigation and to appear before the CBI every Saturday till the end of June 2023 in connection with the case.

The high court in its order had said that the petitioner shall be released on bail in the event of his arrest by the CBI on the execution of a personal bond of Rs 5 lakh, with two sureties for a like sum each, to the satisfaction of the CBI.

The MP is learnt to have fulfilled those conditions.

The court had also asked him not to leave the country without prior permission of the CBI until the investigation is complete and ordered that he shall not tamper with the prosecution witnesses or alter any evidence.

Avinash Reddy, who is the cousin of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, is under the CBI scanner and has been examined several times by the central agency this year.

His father YS Bhaskar Reddy was arrested by the CBI on April 16 in relation to the murder, following which Avinash moved the Telangana High Court seeking anticipatory bail.

Meanwhile, a CBI special court here is expected to pronounce its orders on June 9 in the bail application that Bhaskar Reddy had filed on health grounds.

The CBI while opposing the bail plea of Bhaskar Reddy had reportedly named Avinash Reddy as one of the accused in the case.

Vivekananda Reddy, one of the brothers of the late Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy, was found murdered at his residence in Pulivendula in Kadapa district on the night of March 15, 2019, weeks before the Assembly elections in the State.

The case was initially probed by a special investigation team (SIT) of the state crime investigation department but was handed over to the CBI in July 2020.

The CBI filed a charge sheet in the murder case on October 26, 2021, and followed it up with a supplementary charge sheet on January 31, 2022.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)