Arrest Warrant Against Chandrababu Naidu In 2010 Case

A storm is brewing in Andhra Pradesh following a non-bailable arrest warrant issued against Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and 15 others by a Maharashtra court in a case registered against them in July 2010 for launching a protest against the construction of the Babli dam over the Godavari river.

A court in Dharmabad of Maharashtra issued the NBW against the 16 persons eight years after the protest near the Babli project site at Nanded/Dharmabad (bordering united AP) that was held despite prohibitory orders.

Naidu along with his family members, including his son and minister Lokesh Naidu, were in Tirupati for the Brahmotsavam celebrations on the auspicious occasion of Ganesh Chaturthi when informed reached him about the NBW.

The Congress was in power in both AP and Maharashtra at that time. Chandrababu Naidu as the then Leader Of Opposition in the AP Assembly was seriously concerned over the Maharashtra government taking up the Babli dam construction on the Godavari, claiming that it would affect the water needs of the Sriramsagar project and make as many as six districts, now in Telangana, parched.

Naidu had raised the issued many times in the Assembly during the then Congress Chief Minister K Rosaiah's regime, and had declared that he would launch an agitation at the Babli site. Following the threat, the Maharashtra police had imposed prohibitory orders in the area.

Busloads of TDP leaders led by Naidu proceeded to the dam site anyway as planned, but were stopped at the border areas by the Maharashtra police on July 19, 2010. During the protest march trouble broke out between the police and the TDP leaders, leading to a lathi charge in which many were injured. The TDP leaders were arrested and lodged in a police station at Nanded, and later shifted to the premises of a technical institute.

The alleged ill-treatment meted out to them even made Naidu break down. He complained that the Maharashtra police had treated them worse than they would even "terrorists" and "beggars". However following the intervention of Rosaiah, who spoke to his counterpart in Maharashtra, the police shifted the arrested TDP leaders from Dhanbad to Aurangabad, and put them on a special flight to Hyderabad.

The sudden and unexpected move of the Maharashtra police to reopen an eight-year-old case and serve an NBW against Naidu and 15 others, and that too without serving a notice, has triggered off a political controversy since the BJP is in power in Maharashtra.

A volley of charges began against the BJP for its "vendetta politics". While threatening to take on the BJP nationwide on the issue by launching a mass movement, the TDP leaders have also asked TRS supremo and caretaker Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao to take up the matter seriously with the BJP-led government at the Centre since Naidu's agitation was to protect the interests of the people of the districts now in Telangana. Also, besides Naidu, among those who have been served with NBWs, apart from two members of his present cabinet, are some MLAs and MLCs, many now in the TRS and the Congress.

The Dharmabad court has directed the concerned police to ensure that those served with the NBWs be produced in the court on September 21. Naidu has said that he will attend the court.