Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu deploys police in Hyderabad

HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh government on Tuesday decided to deploy its police forces in key places of Hyderabad to protect its lawmakers amidst rumours that Telangana police was preparing to slap charges against Andhra CM N Chandrababu Naidu in the vote-for-cash scam. Tuesday also witnessed hectic activity of police chiefs and ministers of the two states holding parleys with the governor and their respective chief minsters in Hyderabad, the common capital of the two states for 10 years.

Andhra Pradesh police has already registered cases against Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao, based on a complaint filed by Jerusalem Muthaiah, one of the accused in the vote-for-cash scam, who alleged life threat to his family from Rao and accused the latter of forcing him to implicate Naidu in the vote-for-cash case. The Andhra police have handed over 87 cases filed against Rao across the state to a special investigation team (SIT) and asked the Crime Branch CID to probe into the complaint of Muthaiah.

Raising serious concerns over the way the chief minsters of two Telugu speaking states were attempting to turn the vote-for-cash episode into a battle of emotions between the two states, Lok Satta Party founder Jaya Prakash Narayan sought an independent probe into the vote-for-cash allegations. “Even if the Telangana ACB (anticorruption bureau) sleuths act absolutely fairly and nonpartisan manner, the bad blood between the political parties and tension created between the people of two states will make the crime investigation an issue of pride between the two states,” he said.