“Nandyal Police Forcibly Disrupted My Hunger Strike”: TDP Leader Bhuma Akhila Priya

Nandyal (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: Former Minister and Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader Bhuma Akhila Priya on Saturday alleged that she was forcibly detained by police in Nandyal district while she was protesting the arrest of former chief minster and party chief Chandrababu Naidu.

“For the last forty hours, my brother Jagath Vikhyath Reddy and I have been on a hunger strike at Nandyal with the permission of the Superintendent of Police (SP) of the district.

However, last night without any prior information, the Nandyal police detained me and handed me over to Allagadda police officials to take me to my home,” she said.

“They forced me to get on the bus and instead of taking me to the hospital, they took me to my home. For the last forty hours, I was on a hunger strike even though the police officials didn’t take me to the hospital. Undemocratic rule is going on in Andhra Pradesh,” Akhila Priya added.

She alleged that the police officials of the Nandyal district have violated her constitutional rights adding that she’ll continue her hunger strike from home.

“Don’t I have the right to protest, or sit on hunger strike against illegal arrest of Chandrababu Naidu? Our constitution didn’t have any objection to this, but the police of Nandyala district are obstructing my constitutional rights. I will continue my hunger strike from home”, she said.

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Vijayawada on Friday extended Naidu’s remand for two more days.

The court ruled that the TDP chief will be in the custody of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and will be interrogated in jail on some conditions considering his age and health. The court ordered that Naidu should be interrogated in jail without the need for a journey in view of his health and safety.

Naidu was sent to judicial custody on September 10 for 14 days, till September 23, by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Vijayawada in connection with an alleged Skill Development Corporation scam.

Naidu today moved the Supreme Court against High Court decision dismissing his plea seeking quashing of FIR registered against him.

The case in which Naidu is arrested pertains to the establishment of clusters of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3300 crore, as per the officials.

The agency officials also claimed that the alleged fraud has caused a huge loss to the state government in excess of Rs 300 crore.