The fate of Telugu Desam Party president and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu is hanging in balance, as his 14-day judicial remand will come to an end in a couple of days.
Naidu was arrested on September 10 and his two-week judicial remand will come to an end on September 23 (both days inclusive). So, unless the special court for the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) cases in Vijayawada extends his judicial remand, he will come out of the Rajahmundry jail by Sunday.
The ACB court on Thursday deferred its judgement to Friday on a petition filed by the Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh police seeking the custody of Naidu for at least five days to question him further in connection with the Rs 371 crore skill development corporation scam.
The court said it would take a call on Friday, as the petition filed by Naidu seeking to quash the case was heard by the state high court which is expected to deliver its judgement on the same day.
“So, depending on the high court judgement, the ACB court will decide whether to grant the police custody of Naidu or not,” sources said.
The CID authorities argued that they needed the custody of Naidu, as the judicial remand period will lapse on Saturday. If the remand is not extended, they cannot ask his custody for further interrogation in the skill development case.
The CID on September 12 filed a petition in the ACB court, seeking a five-day custody of Naidu for questioning him further in connection with his alleged involvement in the multi-crore skill development corporation scheme.
Naidu, who was arrested on September 9 at Nandyal town, was remanded to the two-week judicial custody by the ACB court on September 10. He was shifted to Rajahmundry central jail in the early hours of September 11 and he had been lodged there since then.
On September 13, the ACB court also rejected Naidu’s petition seeking house imprisonment on the grounds that he was facing threat perception in the jail.
Meanwhile, the ACB court on Thursday also deferred to September 26 other petitions filed by Naidu, one seeking bail in the skill development case and another seeking anticipatory bail in another case filed by the CID in connection with the alleged irregularities in the alignment of Amaravati inner ring road.
