CBI seeks US help to decode calls & chats made from Viveka house

Hyderabad: CBI said it was making efforts to decode calls and chats made to the United States through a router in AP former minister YS Vivekananda Reddy’s house by seeking assistance of US authorities.As it filed its final chargesheet in the Vivekananda Reddy murder case, CBI said it was still carrying out investigation and may file before the CBI court any new pieces of evidence if it comes across them in future. CBI said the last letter purportedly written by Vivekananda Reddy was sent for Ninhydrin test (a chemical test used to identify the presence of amino acids in a sample). It said the mobile phones data report was yet to come from Thiruvananthapuram after the forensic examination. CBI said that though Vivekananda Reddy was murdered by four assailants — Gangi Reddy, Sunil Yadav, Uma Shankar Reddy and Dastagiri, a fake theory of heart attack was floated by Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy in a premeditated manner to portray it as natural death. Though Avinash and his father Bhaskar Reddy along with his associate, D Siva Sankar Reddy, tried to hush up the murder in a hurry, Vivekananda Reddy’s son-in-law N Rajasekhar Reddy filed a complaint with Pulivendua police on March 15, 2019. Rajasekhar said it was a murder contrary to the theory of heart attack spread by Avinash, his father and Siva Sankar. CBI said the accused did not wait till the arrival of Vivekananda Reddy’s wife Sowbhagyamma and daughter Suneetha Narreddy and went ahead with their plan to wipe out the crime scene and also cover the grievous injuries the ex-minister suffered at the hands of the assailants with the help of bandage. The accused ensured that a vague FIR was registered without mentioning details of the injuries Vivekananda Reddy suffered and even nsisted that the body be sent for funeral without any postmortem, it said. The four assailants even made him write a letter stating that his driver Prasad had committed the murder. However, his wife, daughter and Rajasekhar did not believe the contents of the letter. CFSL in Delhi later confirmed that this note was written under duress, CBI said. It further said in its chargesheet said that Vivekananda Reddy was a captive of his assailants.“Had he been free to write a letter, he would have made a distress call to his family members,” it said. The assailants made him write the letter under coercion to mislead the investigators, CBI alleged. Siva Sankar offered Rs 10 crore to his close associate K Gangadhar Reddy to own responsibility for the murder. Bhaskar Reddy, Avinash Reddy and Siva Sankar were worried that the actual assailants may spill the beans any time. So, they wanted someone to own the larger conspiracy behind the murder, CBI said. Gangadhar died on June 9, 2022.