Vivekananda Reddy murder: Rao 'pressurised' officers to implicate CM Jagan, say AP police

The Andhra Pradesh Police Department held a press conference on April 18 where they exposed former intelligence chief of Andhra Pradesh and suspended IPS officer AB Venkateshwar Rao of falsely implicating CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy in the murder case of YS Vivekananda Reddy. Earlier this week, Venkateshwar Rao wrote a letter to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and requested over the intelligence report related to the case. 

AP police on investigation

However, during the 30-minute long press conference, AP Police addressed every single allegation made by Rao in his nine-page letter. the AP Police represented by DIG Technical services, Palaraju IPS, former SP of Kadapa Rahul Dev Sharma and Ammireddy IPS (representative of IPS officers association) stated that it was the timeline of the case itself that exposed ABV’s fake allegations. Questioning the former official about the alleged hidden information, Palaraju asked why ABV did not come up with it during the two years when he was an active participant in the probe.

‘For 15 days after the murder,  ABV was running the entire investigation and passing orders to the then Kadapa SP and others. Why didn't he use important information that he had on the murder when he was an active part of the investigation?. While leaving, it is mandatory for any officer to disclose every single detail to the successor. Why didn't he do that? For 3 month after the murder, the then Government was in power. 9 months after the present government took over also the case was with us. Since the last one year, it has been with the CBI. What took ABV more than 2 years to come out with this information? '

AP Police further questioned the manner in which the letter was made public as well as the timing of the same. Speaking further, Palaraju added, “When ABV was investigating the case, he pressurised the then SP Rahul Dev Sharma and other officers to implicate the present CM and his family in this murder case. Even today, if he actually wants to provide evidence, he could do so in a sealed cover to the CBI. Why does he have to for to media? That shows the intention." 

In March 2019, YS Vivekananda Reddy was found in a blood pool in his own house in Pulivendula in Kadapa district. Initially, his death was blamed on cardiac arrest, however, doctors later confirmed the presence of injury marks on his body, implying the possibility of murder.  The local police registered a case and later it was transferred to Crime Investigation Department (CID) and to the Special Investigation Team (SIT). However, it was finally taken up by CBI in March last year following a petition by the victim's family.

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