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Synopsis

The Supreme Court has declined to consider a plea to clarify its previous order related to grant of pardon and pre-arrest bail to an accused in the killing of former Andhra Pradesh Minister Y S Vivekanand Reddy after he turned approver in the high profile case related to murder of uncle of current Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy.

A bench of Justices Krishna Murari and Sanjay Kumar noted the plea filed by M V Krishna Reddy, the first informant, seeking clarification of the order passed on October 10, 2022 involved questions of facts and law, which cannot be determined by such an application.

"The present questions of fact and law, that have been raised in the forum of clarification, were never raised by the parties during the original proceedings. Such new arguments, which strike the core of the merits of the case, cannot be decided upon by way of a mere clarification application. Therefore, it is only appropriate for such questions to be answered in the appropriate forum, as and when such questions are posed by the parties," the bench said.

In its October 10, 2022 order, the bench had said, "We have not expressed anything on merits on the pardon granted to the accused No.4 (Shaik Dasthagiri) and as and when any appropriate proceedings are initiated by the person competent, the same may be considered in accordance with law and on its own merits."

The applicant sought clarification with regard to scope of "any appropriate proceedings" and "the person competent" to secure ends of justice and for expediency.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for Dr Suneetha Narreddy, daughter of the deceased, contended the forum of clarification is not akin to a review and since the prayer sought for by way of clarification has the consequence of giving a substantive right to one of the parties, therefore, the present prayer seeking clarification ought to be dismissed.

Dealing with the matter, the bench said two questions arose for consideration, whether the first informant is a “person competent” as per the original order and whether a challenge to the anticipatory bail order in favour of the Accused No 4 and a challenge against the order of pardon in favour of the Accused no 4 fall within the ambit of “any appropriate proceeding” as per the original order of this court.

Answering the questions, the bench said, "Such issues of fact and law, that require detailed consideration on arguments made by the necessary parties, cannot be dealt with by this court, where the forum it dons is one of clarification."

By the October 10, 2022 order, the top court had dismissed a plea filed by D Shivashankar Reddy, who was named by Accused no 4 as accomplice to the offence, against the Andhra Pradesh High Court's judgement on April 16, 2022.

The HC had then dismissed a plea by Accused no 1 (Thumalllapalli Gangireddy) and Accused no 3 (Gajala Uma shankar Reddy) against the pardon granted to Accused no 4 by the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate.

The case is being investigated by the CBI consequent to registering the FIR on July 9, 2020 on a direction by the High Court of March 11, 2020 issued in a writ petition filed by the daughter and the wife of the deceased.

Accused no 4 had made a confessional statement, giving a detailed account of the incident, wherein he stated that the conspiracy to murder the deceased was hatched by Accused No.1, Accused No.2, Accused No. 3 and
himself. 

He also stated that the motive behind the murder of the deceased was for the financial interest of accused No.1 in a disputed property in Bangalore. He further confessed to purchasing the weapon of murder on instructions of Accused no 2, and described how the deceased was killed by the accused persons.

The daughter of the deceased had claimed the CBI investigation has revealed that the scene of offence was cleaned and the wounds on the body were wrapped up with bandages to give credence to the story of death due to a heart attack in the presence and at the behest of Kadapa MP Y S Avinash Reddy, Y S Bhaskar Reddy and D Shiva Shankar Reddy, among others.

On November 30, 2022, the Supreme Court transferred the trial in the case from Kapada to Hyderabad, after noting a reasonable apprehension on the part of Suneetha Narreddy, and her mother, that there would not be any fair investigation so far as the further investigation on larger conspiracy and destruction of evidence is concerned.

Case Title: D Siva Shankar Reddy Vs. CBI