The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Friday took over the investigation into the alleged custodial death of 25-year-old Gade Sai Krishna from Krishnalanka in Andhra Pradesh’s Vijayawada from the special investigation team of the state police, people familiar with the matter said on Saturday.
The CBI’s Hyderabad unit registered a fresh First Information Report (FIR) and inspected the Krishnalanka police station, where Sai Krishna was allegedly detained and interrogated.
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A team of eight CBI officials, led by Additional Superintendent of Police Narendra Dev, visited the police station on Friday evening and examined the second floor, where Sai Krishna was reportedly kept in custody. The investigation is being supervised by CBI deputy inspector general Shiva Subramani.
A senior police official aware of the matter said the CBI team on Saturday started collecting technical evidence at the police station with the help of experts from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory (CFSL), Hyderabad.
On October 16, the state high court, which heard arguments over a habeas corpus petition filed by Sai Krishna’s mother Gade Vijayalakshmi on June 4, ordered a CBI investigation into the custodial death of Sai Krishna. The high court also directed the state government to pay ₹25 lakh compensation to Vijayalakshmi within four weeks.
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It also ordered disciplinary proceedings against the erring police personnel. The high court directed the CBI director to immediately register a regular criminal case and entrust the investigation to a senior officer. It ordered that all officials found responsible for custodial violence should be proceeded against and prosecuted in accordance with the law.
On Friday, the CBI took possession of the case records and evidence collected by the SIT, including witness statements, other relevant documents and remand reports of the accused.
The CBI submitted a copy of the newly registered FIR to the court of the Fourth Additional Judicial Magistrate of First Class (in-charge) on Friday and also filed a memorandum in a sealed cover.
The CBI also sought details from the Crime Control Section (CCS) about the number of criminal cases in which Sai Krishna was an accused and the number of pending non-bailable warrants against him. The agency is also expected to question Sai Krishna’s mother in this regard.
The CBI also approached the court seeking permission to search the residences of two accused — Gulivindala Suresh Kumar (A4), a friend and close associate of suspended inspector SSVV Nagaraju, and Venkataraju (A7). The court is learnt to have granted permission for the searches.
The SIT already filed a chargesheet in the local court, identifying the roles of 13 people in the case. Apart from the police personnel allegedly involved in the incident, the SIT named Suresh Kumar, a close associate of Nagaraju, and subsequently added three more individuals as accused during the investigation.
The CBI will examine the existing chargesheet and the evidence collected by the SIT while independently investigating the allegations, the police official quoted above said.
According to the charge sheet, Sai Krishna was apprehended at Markapuram around 3 am on May 6 in connection with pending non-bailable warrants and brought to Krishna Lanka Police Station around 7 am. He was not produced before a magistrate, and his whereabouts subsequently became unknown.
On June 4, Gade Vijayalakshmi filed a habeas corpus petition before the Andhra Pradesh High Court, seeking directions to the authorities to produce her son before the court.
Subsequently, the Vijayawada police registered a case on June 19, and the state government constituted a SIT, led by Inspector General Ravi Prakash. The SIT arrested inspector Nagaraju and several police constables on June 23.
After detailed investigation, the SIT filed a chargesheet on September 19, confirming that Sai Krishna was subjected to custodial torture and was beaten to death by the Krishnalanka police at an abandoned building in Vijayawada on May 12 and his body was cremated on the same night.