Vijayawada, October 10, 2023: The Andhra Pradesh high court on Monday rejected the anticipatory bail petitions of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief and former chief minister of state Chandrababu Naidu in three corruption cases: the Inner Ring Road, Fiber Net, and Angallu 307 cases.
The development followed as Naidu remained in judicial custody till October 19 due to his arrest by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) in a skill development scam case, where he is accused of misusing funds from the Skill Development Corporation, causing a supposed loss of ₹371 crore to the state during the TDP regime.
The Inner Ring Road, Fiber Net, and Angallu 307 cases are similar alleged corruption cases registered by the YSRCP-led Andhra Pradesh government. against Naidu.
What is AP Fibernet case?
As per a statement by the CM’s office, Naidu, who was also holding the portfolio of energy, infrastructure and investment department during the TDP regime, personally recommended getting the project executed by the energy, infrastructure and investment department, instead of the IT department.
“Naidu gave approval for the estimates of the project without any market survey done. He used his influence to revoke the blacklisting on M/s Terasoftware and got the contract awarded to the company by silencing the protests from other bidders,” the official note said, adding that the loss to the government was around ₹330 crore,” the statement said
Inner Ring Road scam explained:
Meanwhile, the Inner Ring Road scam pertains to the alleged irregularities in the design of the Inner Ring road around the capital city of Amaravati. Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh has also been named as an accused in the case.
The CID said that during Lokesh’s tenure as a non-executive director at Heritage Foods Ltd from 2013 to 2017, the company acquired a piece of land in Kantheru village in Guntur district in 2014. Additionally, Heritage Foods acquired another land from companies affiliated with industrialists Lingamaneni Ramesh and Lingamaneni Rajashekar.
“The initial design of the inner ring road of Amaravati was changed so that it would pass adjacent to the piece of lands of Lingamaneni and Heritage Foods towards Kaza and Kantheru villages,” the CID said, alleging it was done to enhance the value of these lands.
What is Angallu 307 case?
The Angallu case involves an incident where the YSRCP-led Andhra Pradesh government registered a police case against TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and several TDP leaders, accusing them of instigating an attack on its local leaders.
The case alleges that Naidu and other TDP leaders played a role in allegedly inciting violence on YSRCP leaders, who had gone to submit a representation to the former CM at Angallu village in August. Naidu is booked for an attempt to murder (Section 307 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) among other sections in the case according to the reports published in hindustantimes.com.
Several TDP leaders have termed the cases as a political “witch-hunt” and said that Naidu was held on the basis of false allegations.
