Atchannaidu arrest was illegal: Chandrababu Naidu

Amaravati: The TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu lambasted the Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy for the arrest of TDLP Deputy Leader Kinjarapu Atchannaidu, on Friday in a press conference. Chandrababu Naidu said that the Anti Corruption Bureau officials did not show the prima facie evidence before arresting the leader, which was a glaring violation of the fundamental rights of the human according to the Constitution of India. He maintained that Jagna and his government was resorting to political harassment of tall opposition leaders, who stand against the government on corruption and revenge politics.

The ACB officials should follow the legal procedure while arresting MLA, but they violated all the rules, Chandrababu Naidu opined. It was targeted harassment of Atchannaidu, who was consistently fighting against the Jagan government and questioning all the corruption and nepotism practices. The YSRCP offered hundreds of crores of rupees to Atchannaidu to defect from TDP to that ruling party, but he resisted as a committed leader. Hence, the government resorted to a political vendetta against him, the TDP supremo criticised.

"It was shocking everybody. Atchannaidu family has 30 years of political history with honesty and dignity. 300 police deployed at his residence in the morning. 50 police went into the house. They did not even allow him to take medicine, who underwent surgery. They did not inform his family members in the house. How could you do that? When people came to protest, the police threatened them on the name of COVID19. But the police did not wear masks. They took him from his house and transported all the way to Vijayawada, without any formal inquiry", said Chandrababu Naidu.

Further, the TDP chief mentioned that "ACB officials did not produce an arrest warrant. They gave the arrest intimation with handwriting, which itself was a violation. The investigation report of the Vigilance department did not mention the name of Atchannaidu. But the ACB officials fabricated the report to arrest and defame Atchannaidu. Either the central government or the State government made the minister responsible for purchasing the drugs or any other goods in ESI. In this case, how could they hold Atchannaidu responsible for that?".

Stating that the fight against the government will not end till they stop harassing the people, Chandrababu Naidu called for virtual agitation, following the COVID rules.

Earlier, he wrote an open letter to public appealing to protest against the harassment on BCs and SCs in the State by the Jagan government. He demanded the resignation of the Home Minister Mekathoti Sucharitha and answer from the DGP for the violation of fundamental rights of Atchannaidu. He held the chief minister responsible for this entire episode.