A day after Telugu Desam Party president N. Chandrababu Naidu was arrested in alleged skill development corruption case, he was produced in an Anti-Corruption Bureau court on Sunday morning amid tight security.
Naidu was taken to Government General Hospital in Vijaywada for medical tests at 3:40 am. He was interrogated by the special investigation team (SIT) at CID office in Kunchanapalli for around 10 hours after the arrest.
The TDP chief's son Nara Lokesh, wife Nara Bhuvaneswari and others were present at the ACB Court to see him while he was produced. After medical tests, Naidu was taken back to the SIT office before producing him in court. "We thought that he would be taken to the court. But they brought him back to the SIT office. Lokesh and Bhuvaneswari were waiting at the Court but all of a sudden the convoy turned towards the SIT office," Kommareddy told PTI.
CID has named Naidu as the Accused No. 37 in the skill development scam case. The remand report also stated that he was non-cooperative during the interrogation.
The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister is being represented by SC lawyer Siddarth Luthra and his team.
Naidu’s lawyer requested the court to reject the remand report submitted by the CID and told court that he was “falsely implicated for political gains”, reported NDTV. Luthra argued that the when the alleged offence happened Naidu was Andhra Pradesh CM and the person who removes the chief minister from office is the governor of the state and therefore the prosecution has to obtain prior sanction of the governor even to initiate an enquiry/investigation.
The CID also alleged that Naidu and TDP were the "end beneficiaries" of the misappropriated funds.
G. Subba Rao and K. Lakshminarayana, former government employees, were named Accused No. 1 and Accused No. 2 respectively in the case.
Naidu was arrested on Saturday at Nandyal for his alleged role in a multi-crore skill development scam. TDP workers protested all along the route, through which Naidu was taken by CID, on Saturday.
TDP called for a day-long hunger strike across Andhra Pradesh against the 'illegal' arrest of their chief.
