In a massive setback to Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, a special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases in Vijayawada on Sunday evening remanded him to 14-day judicial custody in the Rs 371 crore skill development corporation case.
ACB Court judge Justice Himabindu delivered the judgement after prolonged hearings of the prosecution and the defence lawyers for over six hours and reserving the judgement for four more hours.
Justice Himabindu agreed with the arguments of the additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy and his team about the necessity of remanding Naidu to judicial custoday.
The court rejected the arguments of senior Supreme Court lawyer Siddharth Luthra on technical grounds that the sections under which Naidu was arrested were not valid.
He also argued that the high court had already heard the case and let out the all the other accused in the case on bail.
Naidu is expected to be shifted to Rajahmundry Central Jail shortly, where he will have to spend the next two weeks. The CID police are likely to move the ACB court again seeking police custody of Naidu tomorrow.
Meanwhile, Naidu’s lawyers, too, are planning to move the state high court challenging the lower court order.
They might move the house motion petition shortly in the high court and if it is not considered, they would move lunch motion petition tomorrow.
