Chandrababu Naidu taken in a van over bumpy roads

VIJAYAWADA: The Telugu Desam vociferously protested the manner in which Opposition leader N. Chandrababu Naidu was picked up by the police and was taken away in a regular van without additional security features. The party alleged that the police deliberately took Mr Naidu over bad roads in the interiors of the Amaravati capital region on Monday midnight.

There was high drama when Mr Naidu and other leaders set out in a padayatra to Mandadam to console farmers. The police refused permission to Mr Naidu. The former chief minister, however, set out to walk towards Mandadam but the police took him and the others into custody and transported them towards the Mangalagiri police station on the kacha roads.

TD leaders objected stating that Mr Naidu had a high threat perception and he should not be taken on the interior roads without prior checks. They shouted slogans against the YSRC government and Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy who they alleged was practising revenge politics. They demanded the police drop Mr Naidu at his house but in vain.

The news swiftly spread and TD leaders with activists in large numbers reached the Mangalagiri police station, where Mr Naidu was being taken, and squatted on the road. They demanded his unconditional release and did not allow the police to take Mr Naidu into the police station. After a ruckus, the police allowed Mr Naidu to board his car and drive in his convoy back his house at Undavalli.

AP TD president K. Kala Venkata Rao condemned the behaviour of the police with Mr Naidu who is in the Z-plus security category. He alleged that the police shifted Mr Naidu in a normal vehicle without which was not bulletproof and did not have proper lighting. He demanded Director-General of Police Gowtham Sawang to give an explanation about the ill-treatment to meted out to Mr Naidu,