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TDP leader Nara Lokesh staged a protest along with his supporters in the national capital after the CID in Andhra Pradesh served a notice on him in connection with the Amaravati Inner Ring Road 'scam' case.
The protest was held outside the Delhi residence of TDP MP Jayadev Galla. Earlier, on Saturday, officers from the state CID reached Galla's residence and served the notice on Lokesh, son of TDP chief and former Andhra chief minister, Chandrababu Naidu. TDP supporters at the protest held up placards reading "We condemn the arrest of TDP president Chandrababu Naidu". Meanwhile, the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Friday directed the state CID not to arrest Nara Lokesh in connection with the alleged skill development and AP FiberNet scams till October 4. The high court passed thedirection during a hearing on anticipatory bail pleas in both cases by Lokesh. The court adjourned the hearing on both bail pleas to October 4. Significantly, Chandrababu Naidu is currently in judicial custody in connection with the alleged multi-crore skill development scam. The former Andhra CM has approached the Supreme Court, seeking cancellation of the FIR against him alleging that the YSR Congress government in the state had "falsely" implicated him in the case in a bid to muzzle the voice of the Opposition in the state. Earlier in the day, the high court dismissed Lokesh's anticipatory bail plea, directing the police to serve a notice under Section 41A of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). His legal team had filed an anticipatory bail petition in the Andhra High Court prior to the 41A Notice. However, the courtdismissed the bail petition and instructed Nara Lokesh to cooperate with CID officials in the case. The 41A notice by the CID askedLokesh to appear for further investigation in the case. The CID alleged in a memo that Lokesh tried to derive personal benefits by changing the order of the inner ring road and also played a key role in the scam. It alleged further that corrupt activities were committed by highly placed officials in the Andhra government between 2014 to 2019, with regard to the drawing up of themaster plan for developing Andhra's capital, Amaravati and the alignment of Ring Road and arterial roads. Lokesh was named accused number 14 in the case. (ANI)
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