Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case | Five years on, high profile MP’s death is under probe in Andhra Pradesh

Brutal murder of former MP Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy in Kadapa district leads to political turmoil and legal battles.

Former Member of Parliament (Kadapa) Y. S. Vivekananda Reddy was found brutally murdered at his ancestral home in Pulivendula town of Kadapa district in the early hours of Mar 15, 2019, when the general elections were just around the corner.

              As the younger brother of former Chief Minister Y. S. Rajasekhara Reddy and his representative in his absence from the constituency, ‘Viveka’, as he used to be fondly referred to, had wielded enough clout in the entire district. His brutal murder had created a sensation at that time and the ‘sentimental wave’ generated among the masses helped catapult the YSR Congress Party, founded by his nephew and Rajasekhara Reddy’s son Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy to power.

              The case was initially publicised as a case of heart attack, but all of a sudden it emerged to be a case of murder in his bathroom.

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              When the then Telugu Desam Party (TDP) government in power formed two Special Investigation Teams (SIT) to get the case probed, Mr. Jagan, as the Opposition leader, insisted on a comprehensive probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

              However, after coming to power, the YSRCP government also formed a SIT, instead of approaching the CBI, to get the case probed. It was only at a later stage that the case was handed over to the CBI, in March 2020.

              Taking over its reins from the SIT, the CBI grilled as many as 290 witnesses and filed its first charge sheet in October 2021, in which it named Viveka’s close friend Yerra Gangi Reddy, G. Umashankar Reddy, Y. Sunil Kumar Yadav and Shaik Dastagiri as the accused.