Naidu refuses bail, judicial custody extended

The leader of opposition in Andhra Pradesh and Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and 74 of his party colleagues refused to apply for bail forcing a Maharashtra court to extend their judicial custody. Preparations were being made to shift Naidu and others including 50 MLAs and 2 MPs to the Nasik Jail.

Orders were passed by a magistrate of Dharmabad court in Nanded district on Monday as the two-day judicial custody of the TDP leaders came to an end. With this the crisis between Andhra Pradesh and Maharasthra over disputed Babhli irrigation project on the Godavari was likely to intensify further.

Special buses have arrived at Industrial Training Institute, Dharmabad where the TDP leaders were lodged since Friday last.

Though senior police officials as well as the magistrate urged Naidu and his colleagues to obtain bail on personal bonds to return home, they categorically refused to do so. "There is no need for us to apply for bail because our arrest itself was unconstitutional and illegal", Naidu told the magistrate. "We can not mortgage our self respect and take bail. We are not terrorists. We have not done any thing wrong. We were arrested by Maharashtra police on Andhra Pradesh soil and Maharashtra does not have the jurisdiction to question us", he said.

Naidu told the magistrate the Maharashtra police had arrested them by lying and cheating. "They have not only cheated us but they are also trampling on the self respect of Telugu people. They are looting our water resources", he said.

Naidu made it clear that Maharashtra government will have to release them unconditionally and tender an apology to them. "They will have to allow us to visit Babhli project. Then only we will go back", he said. Meanwhile Naidu and other party leaders observed a day long fast in detention as a protest against what they called illegal irrigation projects in Maharashtraand in solidarity with the Andhra Pradesh strike called by the TDP.