Andhra Pradesh: TDP leaders protest with tied hands against Chandrababu Naidu’s arrest

Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], October 16 (ANI): Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders on Sunday staged a protest in Telangana’s Hyderabad, against the arrest of TDP Chief N. Chandrababu Naidu in the alleged skill development scam case.

They tied their hands with black ropes during the demonstration.

Chandrababu Naidu’s wife, Nara Bhuvaneshwari, and son, Nara Lokesh, also participated in the protest.

“Justice is behind the bars today. Even though there is no evidence, Chandrababu was illegally arrested to keep him distant from the people. It is alleged that they are conspiring to threaten Chandrababu’s life by keeping him in judicial remand while managing the systems”, Nara Lokesh said while speaking to ANI.

He claimed that the Andhra Pradesh government is acting fraudulently by giving false reports that “everything is fine” even if Chandrababu’s health is deteriorating in the jail.

TDP Supremo Chandrababu Naidu is currently under judicial custody.

Naidu was arrested by the Andhra Pradesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) last month in connection with the alleged multi-crore skill development scam case.

The FIR against Naidu was registered on December 9, 2021, and he was added as accused number 37 in the case on September 7, 2023.

Meanwhile, Naidu has sought quashing of FIR registered by AP-CID in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam on the ground that the police did not obtain prior sanction from the Governor as mandated under the Prevention of Corruption (PC) Act.

Apart from the skill development scam case, Chandrababu Naidu has also been booked in the Amaravati Inner Road alignment and the FiberNet scam-related cases.

Naidu has been in judicial remand in the Rajahmundry Central Jail of Andhra Pradesh since September 11 in connection with the skill development scam.

The judicial remand of Naidu has been extended till October 19 by the ACB Special Court in Vijayawada.

Amid the political turmoil in the state followed by Naidu’s arrest, his son and TDP’s General Secretary were also earlier questioned by the CID in connection with the Inner Ring Road case in Amravati.

In May 2022, the CID registered an FIR against Chandrababu Naidu, former municipal administration minister Dr P Narayana, Heritage Foods Ltd, and others, for alleged irregularities in the construction of an Inner Ring Road in Amaravati.

Earlier on Wednesday, Nara Lokesh met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and expressed his concerns about the safety of his father’s life.

He alleged that there is a blatant misuse of state machinery by the YSRCP Government in Andhra Pradesh.