Ex-Andhra CM Chandrababu Naidu, 20 Others Booked For Attempt To Murder And Rioting In Rally

New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party chief and former chief minister Chandrababu Naidu has been booked by Andhra Pradesh police under sections of attempt to murder and rioting. Annamayya district police booked Chandrababu and 20 others under sections 120B, 147, 148, 153, 307, 115, 109, 323, 324, 506 r/w 149 of the Indian Penal Code following clashes between TDP and YSRCP workers during Naidu’s visit last Friday.

At least 20 police personnel and several supporters of the TDP and the ruling YSRCP sustained injuries after stone pelting and arson broke out during N Chandrababu Naidu’s tour of Andhra Pradesh’s Chittoor on Friday, police said, as reported by the news agency PTI. Naidu has been named accused number one in the FIR registered at the Mudivedu police station.

Thirteen of the policemen were severely injured and are undergoing treatment at the Chittoor town government hospital. “The rest of the policemen (seven) are doing fine but were injured by the stones hurled at them. The situation is under control now, and I think we don’t need to go for (imposing prohibitory orders under) CrPc 144 Section as of now,” Chittoor district superintendent of police Y Rishant Reddy told PTI late in the night.

Naidu was on a ‘Yudha Bheri’ tour, which is a 2,500-km tour from Nandikotkur to Pathapatnam, to highlight the failure of the YS Jagan Mohan Reddy government in completing irrigation projects in various districts that were started by him when he was the chief minister.

According to the SP, the altercation started following alleged derogatory remarks by Naidu during a rally at Mulakalacheruvu in Annamayya district, where he called Thamballapalle MLA Peddireddi Dwarakanatha Reddy a “Ravan,” PTI reported. The supporters of the ruling party reacted to these remarks and blocked the way to Angallu in Chittoor, where Naidu was heading. This allegedly led to stone-pelting by TDP cadres, in which several supporters from either side were injured, said Reddy, the news agency reported.