Amravati:

Home-cooked food, medication, and a special room were among the amenities granted by a court to TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu for his fortnight-long stay in jail.

An ACB Court in Andhra Pradesh’s Amravati 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 protectee.

“The superintendent of central prison is directed to provide all the special amenities including food (cooked at home), medication, special room in central prison to petitioner/A37 (Naidu),” the Judge ordered.

According to the detention order, the Judge highlighted that there are grounds to believe the accusations levelled against Naidu, and 24 hours were not enough to complete the investigation.

“This is an authorisation 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 Judge ordered.

Amid tight security and inclement weather, the former Andhra Pradrsh CM was sent to Rajamahendravaram from Vijayawada, a distance of about 200 km, in a convoy on road.

Following Naidu’s dispatch to jail, his son and TDP general secretary, Nara Lokesh, penned an emotional note on X (formerly Twitter), alleging his father was unjustly sent for remand for a crime he never committed.

“My anger simmers, and my blood boils. Is there no limit to the depths political vendetta will sink? Why must a man of my father’s calibre, who has accomplished so much for his country, state, and Telugu people, endure such injustice?” asked Lokesh.

Lokesh said he and his father were “fighters” as he called on people to join him in his battle and sought support from Telugu people worldwide.

Janasena party president Pawan Kalyan alleged that Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy was trying to tar political opponents as criminals and sending them to jail just because he too once did.

According to the actor-politician, who is BJP’s local ally in the southern state, Reddy would not have become the Chief Minister had laws worked effectively.

On Sunday night, the ACB Court in Vijayawada remanded Naidu to 14 days of judicial custody for his alleged role in the multi-crore Skill Development Corporation scam.

Naidu was arrested in a pre-dawn operation on Saturday at Nandyala, which involved officers knocking on the door of the caravan in which he was sleeping.

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. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)