Supreme Court stays Telangana HC order granting conditional bail to T Gangi Reddy in YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case

The Supreme Court on Friday stayed a Telangana High Court order which granted conditional bail to T Gangi Reddy, prime accused in the YS Vivekananda Reddy murder case..A Bench of Justices JK Maheshwari and PS Narasimha stayed the conditional bail granted to Reddy on April 27 by the High Court, and ordered,"We do not want to rush all of you...we will just stay the last portion and take it up after vacations...List on July 14. Till next date, the last operational part of the order remains stayed...where High Court ordered the lower court to release the accused on bail upon certain conditions is stayed.".The Court was hearing pleas challenging the order that had cancelled the bail of Reddy, but had directed a trial court to release him on conditional bail two months later.The top court had on May 18 sought the response of the Central Bureau Investigation (CBI) and Gangi Reddy in the matter..The CBI informed the Court that the High Court order had pre-judged, pre-empted and encroached upon the power of the Supreme Court under Article 142 of the Constitution of India."CBI has filed a counter saying High Court order is a bad precedent and comments on the kind of state investigation. However, the Supreme Court while sending it back to High Court had observed that it seemed like State was deliberately dragging its feet since this gentleman is involved," argued Senior Advocate Sidharth Luthra, representing Suneetha Reddy, wife of the deceased who challenged the High Court order..Gangi Reddy is an accused in the murder of former Kadapa Member of Parliament Vivekananda Reddy, who was the uncle of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy.Vivekananda Reddy was stabbed to death at his residence in Kadapa in March 2019.In 2020, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had transferred the investigation into the murder to the CBI.The Supreme Court had in November transferred the trial in the murder case to a Special CBI Court in Hyderabad. .In January this year, the top court cancelled the default bail earlier granted to Gangi Reddy.In that ruling, it was held that release of an accused person on default bail will not act as an absolute bar to consider a plea for cancellation of bail on merits after presentation of chargesheet.The matter was remanded to the High Court for fresh consideration on merits, leading to the order under challenge.