Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday, November 20 granted a general bail to Chandrababu Naidu in the skill development scam case.
TDP legal team advocate Siddarth Luthra made arguments on behalf of Chandrababu Naidu.
TDP cadres and sympathizers expressed happiness over the court’s decision.
On October 31, the TDP chief was granted interim bail on medical grounds for a period of 4 weeks. Advocates representing Naidu had then informed the court that he needed the bail to undergo cataract surgery.
The court then directed Naidu to furnish a bail bond for Rs 1,00,000 with two sureties of the like amount to the satisfaction of the Trial Court.
Arrested on September 9
Naidu was under 53 days of judicial custody for allegedly misappropriating funds from the Skill Development Corporation, which resulted in a purported loss of over Rs 300 crore to the state exchequer.
He was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on September 9 in connection with the multi-crore skill development scam case.
Naidu’s arrest turned into political turmoil in the state with several TDP leaders alleging that the arrest was nothing but a political “witch-hunt” and that Naidu was held on the basis of false allegations.
Besides, the skill development case, Naidu has been named as an accused in two other graft cases– the Fibernet scam case, and the Inner Ring Road scam case.
The FiberNet case relates to alleged tender manipulation in allotting a work order under Phase-1 of the Andhra Pradesh FiberNet Project involving Rs. 330 crore to a favoured company.
The CID of Andhra Pradesh police has alleged irregularities in the project right from awarding the tender to completion of the work, causing a huge loss to the state exchequer.
Ultimately truth has prevailed and the war has begun on untruth, said Telugu Desam Party (TDP) general secretary Nara Lokesh on Monday after party supremo and former Andhra Pradesh chief minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was granted regular bail by the Andhra Pradesh High Court in Skill Development Corporation scam case.
“Our leader has a clean image and his integrity, individuality and ethics have all been upheld,” said Lokesh, who is also son of Naidu.
Observing that Chandrababu Naidu’s statement that he will never commit any mistake nor will allow others to do so has finally come true, Lokesh said that the Crime Investigation Department (CID) which has arrested and sent him to jail in the Skill Development case could not provide even single evidence in the case.
Lokesh felt that conspiracies, deceptive politics and machinations all have crashed before the law.
It is now clear that there are no shell companies as alleged, Nara Lokesh said and observed that ultimately now it is proved that all this is only a conspiracy to sling mud at the political life of Chandrababu Naidu Meanwhile, TDP MLA Payyavula Kesav observed that in the regular bail order, the High Court has pointed out several lapses.
(With inputs from ANI & IANS)
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