india

Updated: Sep 04, 2019 01:37 IST

A suspect in the murder of Y S Vivekananda Reddy, former MP and uncle of YSR Congress party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy, committed suicide by consuming sleeping pills on Monday night, his family members said.

S Srinivasulu Reddy, 52, a native of Kasunuru village of Simhadripuram block in Kadapa district, succumbed on Tuesday morning while being treated a private hospital in Proddatur town.

The village falls under Pulivendula assembly constituency represented by the chief minister. Vivekanand Reddy, younger brother of Jagan’s father and late former chief minister Y S Rajasekhar Reddy was found murdered at his residence in the early hours of March 15.

Srinivasulu Reddy is a close relative of K Parameswara Reddy, one of the accused in the murder of Vivekananda Reddy. The police had taken Srinivasulu Reddy into custody based on call data records obtained from Parameshwar Reddy during interrogation and questioned him in connection with the murder.

His wife Padmavathi told reporters at Proddatur that her husband had been summoned by the local police officers two days ago and tortured. “Unable to bear the humiliation, he committed suicide,” she alleged.

Padmavathi produced two letters purported to have been written by Srinivasulu Reddy and addressed to the chief minister and Y S Bhaskar Reddy, younger brother of Vivekananda Reddy. In the letter, he said he had no connection with the murder of the former Kadapa MP and in fact, he had a lot of respect for the YSR family.

“I am committing suicide as I am unable to bear the humiliation and torture by the police in the name of interrogation,” he said in the letters.

The police had so far questioned 60 people and arrested three persons in connection with Vivekananda Reddy’s murder. Those arrested were released on bail on June 27.

Kadapa deputy superintendent of police U Suryanarayana said the police were looking into the letters written by Srinivasulu Reddy before committing suicide and the police investigation would be based on these letters.

“As we understand, he was called by the Pulivendula police for questioning as part of investigation into the murder of Vivekananda Reddy. Nevertheless, we will conduct a thorough probe into the circumstances that forced Srinivasulu Reddy to commit suicide,” Suryanarayana said.