Naidu refuses bail; insists on visiting 'disputed projects' in Maharashtra

Telugu Desam Party President N Chandrababu Naidu and 74 party legislators, who were arrested by Maharashtra police at Dharmabad on Friday, refused to take bail on Saturday and remained firm on their demand that they be allowed to visit the controversial Babhli irrigation project.

After failing to obtain the arrested leaders' signatures on blank bond papers, the Maharashtra police finally brought the local district magistrate to the Industrial Training Institute campus where the arrested legislators were lodged to hear the case.

The magistrate asked the TDP leaders to return to Andhra Pradesh immediately and offered to grant bail.

Initially, a case under Section 151 CrPC was registered against the TDP leaders and later Sections 135, 143 and 188 of IPC were also included, which makes the arrested persons liable even for a jail term.

Chandrababu and others, however, stoutly refused to do so and asserted that they would return only after inspecting the controversial project, which they alleged was illegally built by the Maharashtra government.

"We shall go to jail but not return to Andhra Pradesh without inspecting Babhli and other controversial projects," Chandrababu told the magistrate and added that they would continue the fight against the illegal projects till justice was done.

A TDP spokesman accompanying the delegation told PTI over phone from Dharmabad that Chandrababu and the other MLAs spent the whole night in "most horrible conditions" in a dingy room in the ITI.

"There was no power supply and the room was filled with mosquitoes. There was only one toilet but there was no water. The Maharashtra police were so harsh that they did not even allow our party workers to bring drinking water for the leaders," the spokesman said.

The TDP leaders who tried to come out of the dingy room were prevented by the Maharashtra police. This resulted in an altercation between the police and the TDP leaders during which Telugu Desam Parliamentary Party leader Nama Nageswara Rao reportedly fell down.

"The Maharashtra government did not show the basic courtesy towards a former AP Chief Minister and a leader of the stature of Chandrababu Naidu," the TDP spokesman said.

Meanwhile, information reaching Hyderabad said TDP activists from Nizamabad and Adilabad districts gathered in huge numbers on the AP-Maharashtra border and were staging a dharna protesting the arrest of Chandrababu and other leaders.

Protests were also being organised in various parts of the state on the issue. TDP general secretary Panchumarthi Anuradha strongly denounced the Maharashtra government's attitude towards Chandrababu Naidu and other party leaders.

She also criticised the Andhra Pradesh government for remaining "indifferent" on the whole issue and demanded that Centre should intervene immediately and secure the release of the arrested TDP leaders.