Hyderabad: With the murder of YSRC leader Y.S. Vive-kananda Reddy at the centre of an all-out “war” between Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and YSRC leader Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy, what with both leaders making the most of the murder for electoral gains, the Andhra Pradesh Police, which still appears far from achieving a breakthrough in the case, is dealing with a strange situation.
While the political affiliations and favourites of police officials — which begins with the top brass and goes down the ladder, be it the Telangana State Police or the AP Police — is an open secret, the Vivekananda Reddy murder case has led to a serious lack of trust among the policemen themselves, who are now spying on each other.
Speculations are rife that certain officials, both in the IAS and IPS fraternity, have begun to meet Mr Jagan Mohan Reddy and senior YSRC leaders.
Suspecting their own men of working for Mr Reddy’s camp, the AP intelligence wing is understood to be monitoring the phones of all those involved in the Vivekananda Reddy murder probe, particularly those in Kadapa district.
On the other hand, investigators seem to be moving nowhere with the investigation what with the “inputs” coming their way from their own sources turning out to be either completely false or cooked up, making the investigation even more complex.
Vivekananda Reddy was found dead at his residence in Puliven-dula on March 15. Initially, it was said that he suffered a cardiac arrest. Sources in the AP Police told this newspaper that phone monitoring, which is a “routine” affair in every state before the elections, has reportedly been stepped up post Vivekananda Reddy’s murder after suspicions that some in the police department, both at the lower and senior levels, may be “batting” for the Jagan camp, amid reports that the YSRC is going to sweep the elections this time around.
It is suspected that many in the police department have turned Mr Reddy’s sympathisers and therefore the top brass believes that there is a deliberate attempt by some of their own personnel to mislead the investigation till the time elections are over.
“Every input that the investigators are hoping would lead to cracking of the case is turning out to be either false or mischievous.
These inputs are coming from within the police department and we know why it is happening,” a source said, adding that it was making investigation even more tougher.
“Both political parties are levelling serious allegations against each other over the murder, even before we have come across any clue. To make matters worse, our own people are getting conflicting, confusing inputs deliberately for their own selfish gains and it has been proved over the last few days,” they said.
Investigators say that though they were hoping to get some leads from the CCTV footage that was recovered from the vicinity of Vivekananda Reddy’s house, nothing concrete has emerged so far. “Whichever lead we are following is ending up nowhere. Such is the charged political atmosphere in the state that trusting our own people has become difficult,” is all that a police official was willing to comment without elaborating.
It is learnt that while the sleuths were banking upon one particular lead, which suggested that a black Scorpio was seen moving around Vivekananda Reddy’s house repeatedly, soon after his murder, has also turned out to be bogus. “We have serious doubts over whether this case will be cracked before elections,” one official said.
