Read Time: 06 minutes

The Andhra Pradesh High Court has dismissed the petition filed by two accused in Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy murder case, challenging the pardon given to another co-accused, Shaik Dastagiri.

Dastagiti was the driver of the former Member of Parliament, an Indian National Congress leader, who had been brutally murdered and found at his residence in Kadapa, Andhra Pradesh on 15 March 2019.

The Chief Judicial Magistrate and Principal Assistant Sessions Judge in Kadapa had tendered Dastagiri pardon on a plea filed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on account of him turning into an approver in this case.

Rejecting the instant plea, the bench of Justice Cheekati Manavendranath Roy held that there was no infirmity in the order of the lower court and the magistrate had rightly exercised his discretion under section 306 of CrPC in granting pardon to Dastagiri.

Court refuted petitioners' claim that CBI has collected other evidence and noted that the facts and circumstances indicate that CBI has no other evidence to prove the guilt of the accused in the case.

“Dastagiri’s evidence would be helpful to the CBI to prove the case against the other accused beyond all reasonable doubt and to prevent their escape for lack of evidence,” court stressed.

The petitioners had alleged that the lower court had erred in its decision without considering the facts and circumstances of the case. They had contended that a pardon can only be given when there is no other evidence available to prove the guilt of the accused.

They had further alleged that the CBI intentionally did not submit the evidence it collected in the preliminary charge-sheet before the magistrate at the time of hearing to enable him to exercise his discretion whether to grant pardon or not.

Reddy was also the brother of the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh Sri Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and junior paternal uncle of the present Chief Minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh Sri Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

Jaganmohan Reddy had petitioned the High court seeking a CBI inquiry into his uncle's murder. After a change of government, in May 2019 he constituted a new SIT of the state police to probe the murder and tried to withdraw his petition in the court demanding CBI probe.  

In January 2020, Reddy’s daughter filed a writ petition in High Court seeking a CBI investigation and expressed doubts over the investigation by SIT. She alleged suspicions of Y. S. Avinash Reddy, who was one of the first to arrive at the murder scene.

Avinash Reddy is son of YS Bhaskar Reddy, brother of Vivekananda Reddy and cousin of Jagan Mohan Reddy.

Thereafter, the CBI took over the investigation into the case in 2020 on the direction of Andhra Pradesh High Court. 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.