TS ACB chargesheet had mentioned Mr Naidu’s name 22 times
Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu
APCC president N. Raghuveera Reddy on Tuesday asked Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to volunteer for a CBI probe into the cash-for-vote scam and come clean instead of issuing rhetorical statements.
Speaking to the media, Mr Raghuveera Reddy noted the TS ACB chargesheet had mentioned Mr Naidu’s name 22 times which cannot be taken lightly. He said if Mr Naidu wanted to disprove the claims of the ACB, he should seek a CBI probe.
He said TS Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao was dodging investigations into the cash-for-vote scam and Mr Naidu was avoiding the alleged phone tapping. On the suicide of two girl students at the Narayana Educational Institutions in Kadapa on Monday, the APCC chief wanted to know why the government was afraid of minister P. Narayana when students were being harassed at institutions run by him. He said the government should come out with an action plan to tackle the ragging menace.
ACB: Need stong evidence
The Telangana Anti-Corruption Bureau is currently depending on statements of the complainant and audio recordings mentioning AP CM N. Chandrababu Naidu. ACB director-general A.K. Khan meeting Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao gained significance on Tuesday in the wake of the chargesheet reports.
An investigating official of ACB said, “A decision is yet to be taken on naming Naidu as an accused. We are waiting for reports from the Forensic Science Laboratory. We have to send the voice samples of Naidu to FSL. Filing the supplementary chargesheet will take a few weeks and will not be filed immediately.”
Meanwhile, TD legal adviser K. Ravindra Kumar alleged that the ACB chargesheet was a political chargesheet and not a legal one. “The chargesheet does not look like a legal chargesheet, for in every statement they have referred to Mr Naidu. They may mention the name of Naidu hundred times in the chargesheet. They tried to show that Naidu is an accused by mentioning the alleged conversation with Stephenson. This is being used for mudslinging. The chargesheet looks like a combination made by Chandrasekhar Rao and Y.S. Jagan. It appears to be written by politicians and signed by the police. The allegations are baseless. They are trying to assassinate the character of Naidu with a political vendetta. In the chargesheet they haven’t mentioned that Naidu conspired or has a role. Their evidences also didn’t speak about it,” said Mr Kumar.
Make Naidu A-1 in cash for vote scam: Botsa
The YSRC has demanded that the Telangana ACB name Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu the Accused No. 1 in the cash-for-vote scam. Party senior leader Botsa Satyanarayana alleged that Mr Naidu’s role was clearly evident from the chargesheet filed by the ACB.
He told reporters on Tuesday, “The investigating agency mentioning Naidu’s name 22 times merits his inclusion as A-1. His Delhi trip is not for special status but to save his skin.”
Mr Satyanarayana alleged that it was more than clear that the scam took place under Mr Naidu’s direction. Circumstantial evidence points towards the Chief Minister as the key man,” he said.
Meanwhile, the YSRC released its poster for the August 29 state-wide bandh to press the Centre for special status. Party leader Ummareddy Venkateswarlu said, “We welcome a special package but we definitely need special category status as the benefits are far reaching. The Centre has announced '1.65 lakh crore package for Bihar and the Chief Minister and Telugu Desam MPs and ministers are silent, which shows that they are on a compromise formula for the cash-for-vote scam."
( Source : deccan chronicle )
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