Contrary to the speculations that the “sensational” data theft case is aimed at implicating Telugu Desam Party president and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu, the Telangana government is said to be eyeing arrest of his son Nara Lokesh in the case.
A top police official of the Telangana who is investigating the case is learnt to have been entrusted with the task of fixing Lokesh, rather than Naidu in the case.
In fact, as a party president, it is the AP chief minister who is responsible for the alleged theft of the government data by a private data analytics company on behalf of the TDP.
However, sources said the entire social media monitoring of the TDP is said to be directly monitored by Lokesh and instructions to all the Seva Mitra groups go directly from the IT minister.
Going by the data seized from the IT Grid Services, it was evident that Lokesh would be fixed as the prime accused in the case, sources said.
There is also another reason for targeting Lokesh rather than Naidu. If the Telangana police directly book Naidu in the data theft case, it will have serious political ramifications, leading to inter-state clashes and that would ultimately be exploited by Naidu by whipping up anti-Telangana sentiment in the elections.
On the contrary, if Lokesh is booked and is not arrested immediately, it will be a sort of irritant for Naidu who will definitely get frustrated and he will tend to make more mistakes in the elections.
That will also show him in poor light in the elections and ultimately, the TDP would be on the losing side!
