Gade Sai Krishna

Gade Sai Krishna was a 25 year old man from the Krishnalanka area of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, who became known to the Indian public not for any public career but because his death in police custody turned into one of the most closely watched custodial violence cases in the country. He belonged to the Kapu community and had a prior record of criminal cases registered against him at the Krishnalanka and Machavaram police stations, including a murder case in which he had been released on bail and a POCSO case in which he was later acquitted. Because of pending non bailable warrants, he had reportedly been staying out of sight in Markapuram, roughly 300 kilometres from Vijayawada, to avoid arrest.

According to the investigation that followed, a police team detained Sai Krishna in Markapuram in early May 2026 and handed him over to the Krishnalanka police station. Investigators later found that he was not produced before a magistrate as required by law but was instead taken for interrogation, beaten severely and moved to a dilapidated building in the Ranigarithota area of Vijayawada. He died of his injuries there in the second week of May 2026. Police personnel allegedly transported his body by motorcycle to the Swargapuri crematorium in the middle of the night and cremated it secretly, and investigators later found that CCTV footage from the police station covering the period had been deleted.

For weeks, Sai Krishna was simply reported missing. His mother, Gade Vijayalakshmi, said she visited the police station almost daily seeking information about her son before approaching the Andhra Pradesh High Court with a habeas corpus petition. That petition, and the political pressure that followed, led the state government to form a Special Investigation Team, which eventually concluded that Sai Krishna had died solely as a result of beatings inflicted by Krishnalanka police personnel and that his body had been destroyed to hide the crime. The then Circle Inspector of Krishnalanka, S.S.V.V. Nagaraju, was suspended and arrested, and the SIT filed a chargesheet against him and several other police personnel in September 2026.

The case became politically charged because both Sai Krishna and Inspector Nagaraju belonged to the Kapu caste, prompting Deputy Chief Minister Pawan Kalyan to make remarks about caste loyalty that drew sharp criticism from Kapu leaders and the opposition YSR Congress Party. The Supreme Court later took note of the handling of the case, and on 16 October 2026 the Andhra Pradesh High Court transferred the investigation to the Central Bureau of Investigation, ordering the state to pay Rs 25 lakh in compensation to Sai Krishna's mother and directing disciplinary action against responsible officials. Former chief minister Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy welcomed the order as a rebuke to the state government.

The CBI formally took over the probe on 23 October 2026 and two days later registered a criminal case against seven police personnel in connection with the alleged torture, death and destruction of evidence. Although Sai Krishna is believed to have died months earlier, in May 2026, the full circumstances of his death, the cover up that followed and the question of who ultimately bears responsibility have only become public gradually through the SIT's remand reports and chargesheet, and are now the subject of a fresh central investigation.