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The Telugu Desam Party leaders led by its pesident N. Chandrababu Naidu, who was arrested by Maharashtra police at Dharmabad, refused to go on bail on Saturday and remained firm on their demand that they be allowed to visit the controversial Babli irrigation project.
After failing to obtain the arrested leaders’ signatures on blank bond papers, the Maharashtra police finally brought the local district magistrate to the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) Bhavan campus — where the arrested legislators were lodged.
The magistrate asked the TDP leaders to return to Andhra Pradesh immediately and offered to grant bail. In case, if they refused to take the bail, then they will be remanded to custody they were told.
Initially, a case under Section 151 CrPC was registered against the TDP leaders and later Sections 135, 143 and 188 of IPC were also included, which makes the arrested persons liable even for a jail term.
The TDP chief and others, however, refused to do so and asserted that they would return only after inspecting the controversial project, which they alleged was illegally built by the Maharashtra government.
“We shall rather go to jail rather than return to Andhra Pradesh without inspecting Babli and other controversial projects,” Naidu told the magistrate and added that they would continue the fight against the illegal projects till justice was done.
It is likely that TDP leaders might b e shifted to Nasik Jail as the jail at Nanded doesn’t have t he facilities to accommodate such big number.