Vijayawada:
Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu was produced in an Anti-Corruption Bureau court here on Sunday morning amid tight security, a day after he was arrested in a case of alleged corruption.
The former chief minister of Andhra Pradesh is being represented by Supreme Court advocate Siddarth Luthra and a team of lawyers.
Several senior TDP leaders and party cadre gathered at the court complex.
At 3.40 am, he was taken to the Government General Hospital in Vijayawada for medical tests after a 10-hour interrogation at the CID’s Special Investigation Team (SIT) office in Kunchanapalli.
After the tests, which lasted about 50 minutes, Naidu was taken back to the SIT office even though he was expected to be taken directly before a local court.
The TDP chief’s son Nara Lokesh, his wife Nara Bhuvaneswari and others were waiting at the ACB court, TDP spokesperson Pattabhi Ram Kommareddy told PTI.
“We thought he would be taken to court. But they took him back to the SIT office. Lokesh and Bhuvaneswari were waiting at the court but suddenly the convoy turned towards the SIT office,” Kommareddy said.
He wondered whether Naidu would appear in court within 24 hours of his arrest, saying they were surprised and confused.
Naidu was arrested on Saturday in connection with the alleged Skill Development Corporation scam following a pre-dawn police operation at Gnanapuram in Nandyala. He was arrested by police around 6 a.m. from a wedding hall outside which his caravan was parked.
It is alleged that the scam has resulted in a loss of Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer. The TDP chief has been called the ‘main conspirator’ in the case.
Meanwhile, the TDP called on its supporters to take part in a one-day fast in every Assembly constituency on Sunday to protest against Naidu’s arrest.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published through a syndicated feed.)
