Point of Law: Secrecy of crime and paucity of evidence, solely for the apprehension of the other offenders, recovery of the incriminating objects and production of the evidence otherwise unobtainable might afford valid grounds for exercising the power.

ORDER :

Assailing the order dated 26-11-2021 passed in Crl.M.P. No.84 of 2021 by the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate cum Principal Assistant Sessions Judge, Kadapa, whereby he has allowed the petition filed by the prosecuting agency i.e. the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) under Section 306 of Cr.P.C and tendered pardon to accused No.4 in CBI Case R.C.No.4(S)/2020/SC-III/ND, these two criminal petitions under Section 482 of Cr.P.C are filed by accused 1 and 3 respectively.

2. Criminal Petition No.6976 of 2021 was filed by accused No.3 and Criminal Petition No.6980 of 2021 was filed by accused No.1. Therefore, both the petitions were heard together and they are being disposed of by this common order.

3. The case pertains to a brutal murder of Sri Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy (hereinafter will be referred as “deceased”, for brevity) on the intervening night of 14/15-3-2019 in his own house, who was former M.L.A of Pulivendula Constituency, former Minister of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh, former Member of Lok Sabha of Kadapa Parliamentary Constituency and former Member of A.P. Legislative Council and former Member of Parliamentary Committee on Science and Technology and Environment and Forest. He was also the brother of the former Chief Minister of the erstwhile State of Andhra Pradesh Sri Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy and junior paternal uncle of the present Chief Minister of the State of Andhra Pradesh Sri Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy.

4. As per the prosecution version, on 15-3-2019 in the early morning Sri M.V. Krishna Reddy, Personal Assistant of the deceased, lodged a report with Pulivendula Urban Police stating that the deceased was found dead lying on the floor in a pool of blood in the bathroom attached to his bedroom and that there were injuries on the forehead, back of the head and on the palm and other parts of the deceased. The said report was registered as a case in Crime No.84/2019 of Pulivendula Urban Police Station initially under Section 174 of Cr.P.C. When the Police reached the scene of offence, it is found that blood on the floor was completely wiped at the scene of offence and an attempt was made deliberately to destroy the evidence at the scene of offence. The dead body was sent for post-mortem examination. Thereafter, the section of law is altered to Sections 302 and 201 of IPC. Immediately, a Special Investigation Team i.e., SIT was constituted headed by the Additional Director General of Police, CID, to investigate the case to find out the culprits who committed the said offence of murder. During the course of investigation, accused No.1 – Thummala Gangi Reddy alias Yerra Gangi Reddy and two other persons by name Venkata Krishna Reddy and Y.Prakash were arrested on 05-4-2019. Later on, the names of Venkata Krishna Reddy and Y.Prakash were deleted from the list of accused. While the case is being investigated by the SIT and as the culprits could not be traced, various writ petitions have been filed in this Court to entrust the investigation to the CBI.

5. Pursuant to the common order dated 11-3-2020 passed in W.P.Nos.3144 of 2019 and 1639 of 2020 by this Court, the investigation was entrusted to the CBI. Therefore, the CBI has taken up the investigation in this case and has been investigating the said case. Thereafter, several witnesses were examined by the CBI and accused 2 and 3 (Yaditi Sunil Yadav and Gajjala Uma Sankar Reddy) were also arrested during the course of investigation. CCTV footages near the house of the deceased were also collected. The Watchman of the deceased, by name Ranganna, was examined by the Police and he disclosed the names of accused 1 to 4 stating that he has seen accused No.1 staying along with the deceased in his house on that night and that he has also seen accused 2 to 4 entering the house of the deceased on the night of 14-3-2019 and again accused 1 to 4 leaving the said house after some time. The investigation revealed that a conspiracy was hatched up to commit the murder of the dec