Chandrababu Naidu Arrest: From home-cooked food to special room, Court grants THESE amenities to ex-Andhra Pradesh CM

Former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu who was sent to judicial custody till September 23, is getting amenities including home-cooked food, medication, and a special room in jail. These facilities have been granted to the TDP chief by a court.

An ACB Court directed the superintendent of Rajamahendravaram Central Prison to accommodate 73-year-old Naidu separately in view of the purported threat to his life. The former CM is a Z-plus category security protected, PTI reported.

"The superintendent of central prison is directed to provide all the special amenities including food (cooked at home), medication, and special room in central prison to petitioner/A37 (Naidu)," the order read.

"This is an authorization to you (superintendent), to detain … Naidu in custody, and to cause him to be produced before the Court on the 22nd day of September 2023 at 10.30 am," the Judger added.

Soon after the court came out with the custody order, the Telugu Desam Party called for a state-wide bandh on Monday in protest against the arrest of its leader.

Chandrababu Naidu was presented in the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court on Sunday, which pronounced the verdict in the Skill Development Corporation Scam, after several hours of arguments and mulling.

Naidu, who was arrested in the early hours of Saturday, was produced in the ACB Court in Vijayawada on Sunday morning around 6 am. The judge ordered the remand of Naidu for 14 days to judicial custody and suggested taking the former CM to Rajahmundry Central Jail.

Naidu was arrested in a pre-dawn operation on Saturday at Nandyala for his alleged role in the multi-crore Skill Development Corporation scam. Officers knocked on the door of the caravan in which he was sleeping and picked him up.

The former CM was arrested by the CID around 6 am on Saturday from a marriage hall (outside which his caravan was parked) at Gnanapuram in Nandyala.

The case pertains to the establishment of clusters of Centers of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of ₹300 crore. The agency officials also claimed that the alleged fraud has caused a huge loss to the state government in excess of ₹300 crores.

The investigation has revealed irregularities such as before any expenditure by private entities, the then state government provided an advance of ₹371 crores, representing the entire 10% commitment by the government.

(With PTI inputs)