YS Viveka murder case: Supreme Court orders replacement of CBI’s investigation officer

NEW DELHI: In a key twist to the YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case, the Supreme Court on Monday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to replace the investigation officer and adjourned the case till April 10, 2023 for further hearing. According to some reports, the apex court however ruled that Ram Singh, the investigation officer, be continued in the probe team while entrusting the responsibility of the case investigation to another officer.

Hearing a petition filed by Tulasamma, the wife of Sivasankara Reddy, one of the accused in the murder case, a division bench of the Supreme Court expressed displeasure at the CBI’s tardy pace of investigation in the case. The apex court, during its hearing last week, asked the investigating agency to submit its status report on the progress of investigation in the case.

On Monday, the division bench took serious exception to the status report, stating that the CBI failed to give details on the progress of the investigation in the case. Political rivalry was mentioned as a constant refrain all through the report while avoiding what steps the agency took to step up its investigation in the case, the division bench observed.

During its hearing last week, the Supreme Court made it clear that the CBI would have to replace the investigation officer in the case if the agency failed to show some concrete progress in investigation in its status report. Expressing its dissatisfaction over the tardy pace of investigation into the case, the division bench on Monday ordered the CBI to immediately replace the probe officer and adjourned the case for further hearing to April 10, 2023.

The apex court ruling came in as a vindication of the suspicions expressed by Tulasamma, the petitioner, who alleged that the investigation in the sensational murder case was not going on in the right direction. Accusing Ram Singh, the CBI Superintendent of Police who is investigating the case, of bias and refusal to take cognisance of their contentions, she urged the division bench to order his replacement as the investigator.

Similar concerns were also expressed by YSRCP Kadapa MP YS Avinash Reddy, whom the CBI is looking at as one of the accused in the case. The Kadapa MP, who was quizzed at the CBI office in Hyderabad a few times, alleged that Ram Singh was acting in a partisan manner to implicate him in the case. He accused the investigating officer of editing his statement, given during the questioning, at least at 50 instances and not investigating the crucial revelations he made through a letter to unravel the truth. He alleged that the investigation officer was deliberately trying to implicate him in the case while trying to provide a protective shield to the real culprits in the case.