The Telugu Desam party has called for a statewide bandh in Andhra Pradesh on September 11, protesting the arrest of their leader Chandrababu Naidu. Naidu was arrested on September 9 by the Andhra CID in connection with a skill development scam. Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh police have imposed prohibitory orders banning rallies and meetings in several districts of the state including East Godavari . Soon after the Vijayawada Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) Court pronounced its order remanding former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu to judicial custody in the alleged skill development scam, the police issued orders clamping Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) in several districts. Section 144, which forbids gatherings of four or more persons, will be in force in all mandals (blocks) of these districts.
The prohibitory orders were apparently imposed to prevent any protest by the opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP). Several parts of the state have witnessed protests since Saturday after Naidu was arrested by the Crime Investigation Department (CID) in Nandyal. It is unclear if other parties like the Jana Sena Party and Bharatiya Janata Party will support the bandh. The TDP has termed Naidu’s arrest illegal.
Naidu was arrested in the early hours of Saturday. Though a police contingent led by Nandyal Range Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Raghurami Reddy arrived to arrest him around 3 am, scores of TDP cadres and leaders tried to stop them, and held them off till 6 am. The CID produced Naidu in the Vijayawada ACB court on Sunday morning. TDP workers have been protesting the arrest for the past two days, calling it an act of political vendetta by the YSR Congress Party government, and alleging that it was foisting false cases on Opposition leaders.
Read: Chandrababu Naidu arrested in corruption case: What is the skill development scam?
Also read: CID calls Chandrababu Naidu ‘chief architect’ of AP skill dev corp scam
With IANS Inputs