NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday set aside an order of the Telangana high court staying the arrest of member of Parliament from Kadapa YS Avinash Reddy in a murder case in which he was a suspect and scoffed at the high court’s directions requiring the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to supply a written questionnaire to the accused.
“An order of this nature will stultify the investigation. There is no warrant for the HC to state that a person who is an accused facing investigation should be given questions in written or printed form. Such orders of the court tend to prejudice the course of investigation, particularly at a stage when the CBI has to fully investigate the role of the accused,” said a bench of Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud and justice PS Narasimha on Monday.
The bench added that the high court on April 18 “misapplied itself and passed an extraordinary order” and set aside the Telangana high court’s order.
The high court granted stay of arrest till April 25 on an anticipatory bail petition by the Kadapa MP, told the lawmaker to present himself before the investigators but added that the CBI will record the interrogation and circulate a written questionnaire to the accused.
The MP’s plea for an arrest shield was filed after CBI issued the ruling YSR Congress party MP on April 16 to join investigation in connection to his uncle’s murder that took place in March 2019 at Kadapa district. The deceased Vivekananda Reddy’s daughter Suneetha Narreddy approached the top court against the April 18 high court order, underlining that CBI had to complete its investigation into the larger conspiracy into the murder till April 30 as directed by the top court while dealing with a related petition filed by another accused in the case.
The also court extended the deadline to complete the probe to June 30 on the CBI’s request.
The bench did not spare the CBI either, which had complied with the high court order without appealing against the high court verdict. The bench headed by CJI Chandrachud said the CBI may as well be wound up if it has to carry out investigation by sharing advance questionnaire with accused.
“If this is the stand of investigation, then we may as well wind-up CBI. Why do you need CBI If this is the yardstick to be adopted. Then in all cases probed by CBI and Enforcement Directorate, the accused will say why apply a different yardstick to me. They will also demand a written questionnaire.”
“The high court should not be passing such kind of orders,” the court reiterated.
Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appearing for CBI sought to clarify that the order was not implemented the way it was directed. “Giving questions to the accused is exceptional. It was done under the direction of the Court,” Mehta said.
The petitioner, represented by senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, said that it was very unfortunate that CBI gave written questionnaire to the accused making the entire investigation an exercise in futility. “It is an absurdity that CBI is supporting the accused. This is a case of total lawlessness.”
The accused represented by senior advocates, Mukul Rohatgi and Ranjit Kumar, said the accused had been cooperating with the investigation and if the questionnaire part in the HC order was bothering the top court, that part may be struck off.” Alternatively, Rohatgi also submitted that if the court was inclined to set aside the entire order (of April 18), his client was willing to withdraw the anticipatory bail petition and face the probe.
Petitioner Suneetha Narreddy alleged in the petition that the accused MP enjoyed tacit support from the AP government. She said that Avinash Reddy called up the police and informed that her father died due to heart attack and no case was required to be registered. The post mortem repor, however, said there were six lacerated wounds on the body and the cause of death was “hemorrhagic shock, injury to vital organ (brain).”
After YSR Congress Party came to power in the state in 2019, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy formed SIT and reconstituted it thrice. The Telangana high court in March 2020 directed CBI to take up the case on a petition by Narreddy.
In October 2020, CBI filed a charge sheet naming four accused. The name of Avinash Reddy was separately added as a suspect among other persons. As the CBI was still probing the case, AP chief minister gave a clean chit to Avinash Reddy on the floor of the assembly in November 2021. Later in November last year, the top court directed the investigation to be shifted from Kadapa to Hyderabad.