Supreme Court transfers trial in YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case to Special CBI Court in Hyderabad

The Supreme Court on Tuesday transferred the trial in the murder case of YS Vivekananda Reddy - former Lok Sabha Member of Parliament and uncle of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy - to a Special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court in Hyderabad. (Suneetha Nareddy and anr vs CBI and ors).A Bench of Justices MR Shah and MM Sundresh noted that there was a reasonable apprehension that there will not be any fair investigation on the larger conspiracy and destruction of evidence angles. " ... it cannot be said that apprehension on the part of the petitioners ... is imaginary and/or has no substance at all. The petitioners being daughter and wife of the deceased have a fundamental right to get justice as victim and they have a legitimate expectation that criminal trial is being conducted in a fair and impartial manner and uninfluenced by any extraneous considerations."The top court was hearing a plea filed by the daughter of Reddy seeking directions to the CBI to expedite the probe into the murder case. .The Court further ordered that all chargesheets and supplementary chargesheets will be transferred to Hyderabad. The first information report (FIR) alleging a larger conspiracy surrounding Reddy's death and destruction of evidence in the case will be probed by the CBI.The agency was directed to do so 'at the earliest and it goes without saying that it must be done independently and in an unbiased manner.'.Reddy, who was part of the Indian National Congress, left the party to join the YSR Congress party headed by his brother and former AP Chief Minister YS Rajashekara Reddy. He served as Agriculture Minister for the State government.He was stabbed to death at his residence in Kadapa in March 2019. In 2020, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had transferred the investigation into the murder to the CBI..The top court in its judgment noted that two witnesses were already under police protection, while another had died due to mysterious circumstances after retracting from giving a statement in court. The bench noted that given the large number of witnesses that even otherwise need to be examined in the case, they should not face any hardship. The judges underscored, "As per the settled position of law, justice is not to be done but the justice is seen to have been done also. As per the settled position of law, free and fair trial is sine qua non of Article 21 of the Constitution. If the criminal trial is not free and fair and if it is biased, judicial fairness and the criminal justice system would be at stake, shaking the confidence of the public in the system.".Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra appeared for the petitioners. Additional Solicitor General KM Nataraj appeared for the CBI. [Read judgment]