CID interrogated TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu through the day in prison; he will be presented back in court on Sunday.
Published Sep 23, 2023 | 1:12 PM ⚊ Updated Sep 23, 2023 | 5:59 PM
AP CID taking Chandrababu Naidu to Vijayawada after his arrest. (TDP/X)
Former Andhra Pradesh’ chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday, 23 September, filed an appeal petition in the Supreme Court against the Andhra Pradesh High Court’s order that dismissed his quash petition.
Earlier in the day, the state Crime Investigation Department (CID) took the TDP supremo into police custody for two days of questioning in the multi-crore skill development scam.
The high court, a day earlier, had dismissed Naidu’s petition seeking the quashing of the First Information Report (FIR) filed against him in the alleged ₹371 crore scam. After the high court had dismissed his plea, an Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court granted the CID Naidu’s custody for two days.
The TDP leader was in judicial custody at the Central Prison in Rajamahendravaram till 9.30 am on Saturday. The CID later took over his custody and is interrogating him on his role in the scam. Naidu would be in CID custody till 5 pm on Sunday, 24 September. He would be later surrendered virtually before the court.
Naidu’s petition in the apex court might come up for hearing on Monday, 25 September.
TDP state president K Atchen Naidu had, on Friday, given an indication that the high court’s order would be challenged in the apex court. He said that the case against Naidu, registered on trumped-up charges, was politically motivated, pointing at incumbent Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy’s politics of witch-hunting.
The TDP legal wing was trying to find new angles to build a solid defence for Naidu when the latter’s petition would come up in the Supreme Court. Senior lawyers of the Supreme Court would be representing Naidu.
Vowing to fight back, the TDP leaders said they would not be cowed down by the YSRCP’s vendetta politics.
Meanwhile, Narayana Rao Atluri, a film producer and TDP sympathiser, submitted a memorandum to Union Law Minister Arjun Ram Meghal in Delhi, alleging that Naidu’s arrest was part of a political conspiracy.
The TDP has been campaigning across the state to paint YSRCP as undemocratic and its supremo and chief minister Jagan dictatorial ever since the CID arrested Naidu from Nandyal on 9 September.
His arrest sent shockwaves across the state even as he was brought by road to Vijayawada from Nandyal. Meanwhile, AP-CID chief N Sanjay gave a detailed account of how the scam took place at a media conference and argued that they had enough evidence against him.
The CID officers who interrogated him till late into the night of 9 September, produced him in the ACB court at daybreak the following day. Counsels of CID and Naidu argued for and against sending him to judicial remand throughout the day. In the evening, the court went by the CID’s argument and sent him to jail.
Naidu’s counsels, later, filed a quash petition in the high court challenging his arrest and sought the dismissal of the remand report. After a protracted legal battle, the high court on Friday, 22 September, dismissed Naidu’s petition while the CID which sought five days of his custody in ACB court, got an order in their favour for two days.
