The judicial first class magistrate of Dharmabad in Nanded district in Maharashtra issued an arrest warrant against Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu and 15 others in a 2010 Babli project agitation case. The Telegu Desam Party (TDP) in 2010 had accused the controversial Babli project over Godavari river as an illegal project and claimed that the barrages over Godavari will dry out districts.
The local court in Maharashtra has directed the police to arrest all the accused and produce them in the court by 21 September. Back in 2010, Naidu and others, including state Water Resource Minister Devineni Umamaheswara Rao and Social Welfare Minister N Anand Babu, who were then in the Opposition in Andhra Pradesh, were arrested and put up in a jail in Pune for the agitation staged by them against the Babli reservoir project. Naidu and his party leaders are facing the charge of defying the prohibitory orders of the local police and visiting the Babli project.
With Telangana set to go to polls after the assembly was dissolved by the Telangana cabinet, the TDP is believed to be keen on attend before court to not only declare his respect for the judiciary but also for political considerations. The BJP and the TDP parted ways earlier this year in March.
