Amaravati, Sep 10: After a local court in Vijayawada remanded TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu in judicial custody for 14 days in an alleged multi-crore corruption scam on Sunday, he is being taken amid tight security to Rajamahendravaram Central Prison, 200 km away from Vijayawada.
Soon after the court came out with the order, the Telugu Desam Party called for a statewide bandh on Monday in protest against the arrest of its leader.
In a pre-dawn operation on Saturday at Nandyal, officers knocked on the door of the caravan in which Naidu was sleeping and arrested him for his alleged role in the Skill Development Corporation scam. He was termed “principal conspirator” in the case.
The former CM was arrested by the CID around 6 am on Saturday from outside a marriage hall, where his caravan was parked, at Gnanapuram in Nandyal.
After an arrest saga of more than 36 hours, the ACB Court gave the remand order around 6.50 pm on Sunday evening.
“It is a clear case of fraud involving Rs 370 crore. The court accepted our arguments,” Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy, AP Additional Advocate General told PTI.
Naidu was arrested in connection with an alleged fraud case involving misappropriation of funds from the Skill Development Corporation, leading to a loss of Rs 300 crore to the state government, AP CID Chief N Sanjay said on Saturday.
It turns out that it was on the wedding anniversary of Naidu and his wide Nara Bhuvaneswari that the TDP chief, who served as the chief minister for 14 years, was remanded.
Since September 10 is the wedding anniversary, it was conspired to illegally arrest Naidu on September 9 and make him sit in the CID office throughout the night, leaving him and his wife sleepless, a TDP official said in a post on the party’s official social media account on X.
He added that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy had deprived the couple of their anniversary joy.
The TDP chief informed the court that he was innocent.
Supreme Court lawyer Siddharth Luthra, representing Naidu, argued that the CID needed to obtain the Governor’s prior permission to arrest the TDP chief. However the court agreed with the government’s counsel’s counter on that, another advocate who witnessed the court proceedings said.
Luthra also argued that the former CM was being falsely implicated in the case.
Meanwhile, senior YSRCP leader and advisor to AP government Sajjala Ramakrishna Reddy lashed out at Naidu, saying that he and the opposition party were behaving as if something untoward had happened to them.
“Instead of bowing his (Naidu) head in shame for the crime committed, they (Naidu and TDP leaders) are bluffing in a bid to disturb the law and order situation in the state,” said Ramakrishna Reddy, addressing reporters immediately after the pronouncement of the verdict. (PTI)
