The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Paritala case: five-day CBI custody for Suri

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Mar 31, 2005

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Paritala case: five-day CBI custody for Suri

By Our Staff Reporter

ANANTAPUR, MARCH 30. The Additional District Magistrate's Court here today granted five days' custody of G. Suryanarayana Reddy alias Suri, the main conspiracy suspect in the Paritala Ravi murder case, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The officiating AJFCM, A.V. Nelson Raj, also set aside a few requests and objections of the defence over the Suri's custody to the CBI. The defence plea to interrogate Suri in the district jail itself and appointing an advocate commissioner for the interrogation were negated by the judge.

After issuance of orders by the court counsel for Suri, C. Adisesha Reddy, urged the court to give time for appealing against this court orders in the High Court as the defence was not satisfied with the orders as they were against the interests of his client.

Further, defence counsel explained that it would take time to reach Hyderabad, prepare appeal petition and file it in the High Court and by that time weekend would come.But, the judge rejected the defence plea and observed that the court could not revoke its orders once they were issued. The judge directed the CBI not to use third-degree methods during interrogation.

Appeal against order

The defence, however, insisted that they would appeal against the lower court order in the High Court.

After securing the court orders a CBI team went to the district jail at Reddypalli, near here, along with a team of doctors for the formal health check-up of Suri before taking him into their custody. Suri was taken into custody just before 6 pm after getting the health check-up was done.

He was immediately whisked away amid heavy security to the CBI camp office here. It is reliably learnt that CBI was planning to use a lie detector for Suri's interrogation.

Volte-face

Meanwhile, one of the suspect killers of Ravi, P. Narayana Reddy, turned hostile by claiming that Suri was in no way connected with the murder. He spoke to mediapersons when he was brought to the General Hospital here as the bullet wound he sustained during the shooting in January was not healing.

"We killed Ravi, but not at the behest of Suri. We killed him to restore democracy in the district. We did not do it for money," he stated. He kept quiet when asked why he, along with M. Obi Reddy, V. Konda, V. Seena and V. Ranganayanakulu, had claimed to have killed Ravi at the behest of Suri before their surrender to the police here in February first week. After getting the necessary medical attention Narayana Reddy was again shifted to the district jail.

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