Supreme Court transfers Viveka case trial to Hyderabad CBI court

ANANTAPUR: In a major blow to the AP government, the Supreme Court on Tuesday transferred the trial of the three-year-old case of murder of Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy's uncle and former minister Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy to the special CBI court in Hyderabad.

This followed a plea from Vivekananda Reddy's daughter Dr N. Sunitha,
seeking transfer of the case to any court outside the state as there was
"poor cooperation" from the AP government. She said the CBI was facing
inconvenience to take the case forward in AP.

The murder case was being handled at the Kadapa district sessions court in
the YSR district.

A Supreme Court bench comprising Justice M.R. Shah and Justice B.V.
Nagarathna pronounced the order after considering the petition filed in
September. The apex court bench said, "The petitioner has the fundamental
right to get justice and this is a fit case for transfer to a state other
than AP. Justice not only need be done but also seen to be done. It can't be
said that the apprehension of the petitioner that there may not be a fair
trial or that there was a larger conspiracy behind the murder is imaginary.
The petitioner has the fundamental right to get justice."

Referring to the destruction of evidence in the murder case as the FIR
alleged a larger conspiracy vis-à-vis the murder, the Supreme Court ordered
the CBI to probe this aspect too. The court directed AP that the
chargesheets and supplementary charge sheets be transferred to the special
CBI court of Hyderabad.

In an affidavit filed in the apex court, Sunitha made it clear that there
was no conducive atmosphere for the CBI to complete the investigation in AP
and sought transfer of the case to another state. She said the suspects were
creating hurdles by threatening the witnesses and filing private complaints
against the CBI.

Meanwhile, the CBI also submitted a report backing Sunitha's contentions, in
response to SC notices.

Counsel for Sunitha, Siddarhta Luthra, brought to the notice of the bench
that the hurdles included even criminal cases against CBI officials. He said
the investigation could be speeded up by transferring the case to another
state. Counsel also informed the court that there was no cooperation from
the state government to complete the investigation process.