Viveka murder case: CBI to grill close aide of YS Avinash Reddy for 7 days

Hyderabad: Armed with a bunch of papers of confession from the accused, the CBI officials probing the case of former Kadapa MP YS Vivekananda Reddy's murder would grill AP YSRC general secretary and close aide of Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy, namely Devireddy Shiva Shankar Reddy, for seven days.

The Kadapa court has granted seven days’ police custody of accused Shivashankar Reddy for CBI questioning. The central probe agency had filed a petition seeking eight days’ police custody of SS Reddy.

Following court directions, CBI officials were heading to take custody of SS Reddy from the Kadapa jail and grill him in the murder case.

The confessional statement of former driver of Vivekananda Reddy, Sheik Dastagiri, is vital in the murder case as he turned out to be approver.

In the statement, Dastagiri said Erra Gangireddy told him that SS Reddy had offered Rs 40 crore for killing Vivekananda Reddy in connection with some land settlement issues. Months before the murder of Vivekananda Reddy, “both Gangi Reddy and Vivekananda Reddy went to Bengaluru and were involved in a land deal.”

In her petition, Vivekananda's daughter Sunita Reddy stated that SS Reddy is a suspect in the murder of her father.

A few days ago, CBI officials arrested SS Reddy in the city and shifted him to Kadapa on a prisoner transit warrant (PT).