Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu will have to spend at least two more days in Rajahmundry central jail, braving mosquito bites and suffocation within four walls.
With Naidu’s 14-day judicial remand coming to end by Friday night, the Crime Investigation Department police of the state produced him before the special court for Anti-Corruption Bureau cases in Vijayawada on a video conference mode from Rajahmundry jail in the morning.
The judge asked the TDP president whether he had faced any inconvenience in the judicial remand and said the remand would be extended till September 24 since his quash petition in the high court is pending delivery of the judgement.
The ACB court judge told him that Naidu should not consider it as a punishment, as it is just a judicial process as per the law.
“You are only facing allegations and further investigation would bring out the real facts in the case,” the judge said.
Naidu told the court that he was thrown behind the bars for no reason.
“I am very much anguished and mentally tormented for being in the jail. Everybody in the country and the state is aware of my credibility. My arrest was totally unjust and illegal,” he said.
Stating that he had spent 45 years of long life in public service, the TDP chief said he was arrested without giving him any notice.
“If there are any strong evidences against me, they could have arrested. But they had no such evidence. At this age, it is a big punishment for me,” he regretted.
He, however, said he would respect the law and hoped that justice would prevail ultimately.
The judge told him that everybody was equal before law and hence, he had been sent to judicial remand.
“The CID wants to take you into custody but your lawyers have opposed it,” the judge said.
Meanwhile, the ACB court would deliver its judgement in the afternoon on the CID’s petition seeking the custody of Naidu for five days.
