TDP women caders hold candlelight march in Visakhapatnam over arrest of Chandrababu Naidu
Sep 24, 2023
Visakhapatnam (Andhra Pradesh) [India], September 24 : Women caders of the Telugu Desam party held a candlelight march in Visakhapatnam on Sunday against the YSR Congress Party government demanding the release of their party chief and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu who is in judicial custody in connection with the skill development scam case.
The protest came hours after a Vijayawada Anti-Corruption Bureau court (ACB) extended Naidu’s judicial custody in the case till October 5.
Earlier today TDP women workers went before the Gandhi statue on the Beach Road of the city to protest but police prevented them from proceeding and arrested them.
Naidu was produced before the ACB court virtually from Rajahmundry Central Jail on Sunday.
The court first sent him to 14 days of judicial custody on September 10 after being produced before it by the Andhra Pradesh CID which arrested him in the early morning on September 9 in the multi-crore 'scam' case.
The case involves alleged misappropriation in the establishment of clusters of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3,300 crore.
Agency officials claimed that the alleged fraud had caused a huge loss to the Andhra Pradesh State government in excess of Rs 300 crore.
Naidu had on Saturday approached the Supreme Court seeking to quash the FIR against him in connection with the case after his plea for the same was rejected by the Andhra Pradesh High Court.
As per the CID, Naidu was the principal conspirator and "accused no 1" in the alleged Rs 371 crore skill development scam.
In its remand report, the CID has said that according to the investigation so far, the total amount spent by private entities on six skill development clusters is sourced exclusively from funds advanced by the Government of AP and AP Skill Development Centre, totalling Rs 371 crores."