AP Police books Naidu again for Amravati Project

Naveen S Garewal 
Tribune News Service 
Hyderabad, March 17 

There is more trouble for former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Chandrababu Naidu after the state police booked another case relating to the Amaravati Project naming him as an accused. Crime Investigation Department (CID) registered an FIR against him along with some other Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leaders. 

As per the FIR based on the complaint of a ruling party MLA Alla Rama Krishna Reddy (Nani) to the Additional Director General of Police (CID), PV Sunil Kumar the allegations are that a few farmers from Mangalagiri Constituency had approached the MLA with complaints that influential persons from the previous TDP government had “cheated them by taking away their lands illegally, fraudulently” by keeping them “under confusion and fear of insecurity about their lands”.

Minister for Municipal Administration and Urban Development in the TDP Government, Ponguru Narayana has also been named in the FIR. Naidu has been asked by the CID officials to appear for inquiry at the CID Regional Office in Vijayawada on March 23.   

Responding to the notices issued by the CID, TDP state president Kinjarapu Atchannaidu called the move an “act of vengeance” by the ruling YSR Congress Party (YSRCP). The TDP has said that the land for the capital at Amaravati was taken with the consent and connivance of the farmers’ consent. Atchannaidu has alleged that the YSRCP government was occupying lands that were assigned to poor farmers for cultivation, to use them towards the government’s housing scheme for the poor and was not trying to bully the politicians from the erstwhile government. 

It is pertinent to mention that in January, the Andhra Pradesh High Court had quashed the previous criminal case filed by the Andhra Pradesh Government, alleging ‘insider trading’ by Naidu, his family members and some other leaders close to the TDP. The court held that the land was sold willingly, and no insider trading had occurred.