Chandrababu booked for provocative statements

Hyderabad police on Thursday booked Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and his five cabinet colleagues for making threatening and provocative statements against Telangana government.

On a direction by Ranga Reddy district court, a case was filed against Naidu and others at L.B. Nagar police station under the limits of Cyberabad police commissionerate, a police officer said late on Thursday night.

M. Phanindra Bhargav, a lawyer, had approached the court seeking direction to police to book a case against the Andhra chief minister and others. The police booked the case under various sections of Indian Penal Code relating to sedition, promoting hatred, criminal conspiracy, intimidation and other charges.
The petitioner referred to Naidu's threat during an interview that it would be last day of Telangana's TRS government if he was arrested in cash-for-vote case. He also claimed that Naidu and other ministers made statement provoking people of Andhra Pradesh against Telangana.

A police officer said they would submit a report to the court after investigations. It may be recalled that dozens of cases were booked against Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao at various police stations in Andhra Pradesh on June 8, a day after an audio tape of Naidu's alleged telephonic conversation with Telangana's nominated MLA Elvis Stephenson was aired on a television channel said to be part owned by Chandrasekhar Rao's family.
TDP MLA A. Revanth Reddy was arrested by Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Telangana on May 31 for trying to bribe Stephenson to induce him to vote for TDP-BJP candidate in Telangana legislative council elections.