New Delhi: Telugu Desam Party general secretary and N. Chandrababu Naidu’s son Nara Lokesh met Union home minister Amit Shah on Wednesday, and said that he fears for his father’s life in prison.Former Andhra Pradesh chief minister Naidu was arrested on September 9 in connection with the skill development scam. His judicial remand has been extended till October 19.Talking about the meeting on X, Nara Lokesh said Naidu is living in an “appalling condition” in jail.Met with the Hon’ble Union Home Minister @AmitShah Ji and apprised him of the blatant misuse of state machinery by YSRCP Govt in Andhra Pradesh, the regime revenge against Hon’ble @ncbn Garu, and the appalling condition in which he has been lodged in prison where his life is… pic.twitter.com/7vJFAGsdXM— Lokesh Nara (@naralokesh) October 11, 2023Before this, Lokesh had met President Droupadi Murmu and sought her intervention in the matter related to Naidu’s arrest, Deccan Herald reported.The leader of the opposition in Andhra Pradesh was arrested early on September 9, as an accused in the FIR registered by the AP CID in 2021 over an alleged multi-crore scam in relation to the Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation.During Naidu’s term (2014-19), the state government and two companies initiated a project to create six centres of excellence (CoE) and 36 technical skill development institutes. The estimated cost was around Rs 3,281 crore, which the CID claims is an inflated amount.The CID claims that Naidu and others allegedly routed hawala transactions through a network of shell companies, did not adhere to procedures and disregarded observations regarding the project’s viability. The TDP has set up a website to counter the allegations, highlighting that Andhra Pradesh established one of the highest numbers of clusters and trained the highest number of candidates among all the states that had similar schemes.The Andhra Pradesh high court had dismissed Nadiu’s petition to quash the case while noting that the investigation is attaining finality and the court cannot interfere at this stage.
