By IANS,
Nanded/Hyderabad: Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N. Chandrababu Naidu and his party colleagues were Saturday sent to judicial custody for two days by a magistrate in Dharmabad town of Nanded district in Maharashtra.
The TDP leaders, who were arrested Friday for trying to enter the state despite ban orders, are likely to be kept at Dharmabad Industrial Training Institute (ITI) till July 19.
Since the leaders, including MPs, state legislators and former ministers, have refused to be shifted to different jails, the authorities may allow them to stay at ITI.
A Maharashtra official described the situation in Dharmabad as “peaceful and under control” with no untoward incidents of reported from anywhere.
Protesting the arrests, TDP has called for state-wide protests Sunday and a shutdown Monday in Andhra Pradesh.
A magistrate, who was called to ITI, sent the TDP leaders to judicial remand as they refused to take bail, saying they would not leave Maharashtra till they were allowed to inspect the Babli dam.
The TDP leaders opposed the move to shift them to different jails and requested that they be lodged in one jail.
Police have refused to allow Naidu and other leaders to visit the Babli dam being built by Maharashtra across Godavari River.
Andhra’s main opposition party has alleged that the dam was being constructed illegally and it would deprive Andhra of its rightful share of waters.
Earlier, tension prevailed at ITI as the Babli Samrakshana Samiti staged a protest demanding that Naidu and the 75 other TDP leaders go back.
Police baton charged the protesters and arrested them as they tried to barge into the ITI premises raising slogans against the Andhra leaders.
The arrested leaders spent Friday night at the ITI. The TDP leaders here said Naidu and others, including women, slept on mats.
The arrested leaders have not been provided basic facilities but they are determined to continue their protest, the TDP leaders said.
Naidu has also decided to lodge a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission against the Maharashtra government.
The TDP has complained to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and Andhra Pradesh Assembly Speaker Kirankumar Reddy about the arrests of MPs and legislators by Maharashtra Police and sought their intervention for the early release of the elected representatives.
The TDP leaders were arrested on the Andhra-Maharashtra border Friday afternoon when they tried to enter Maharashtra to inspect Babli. The former Andhra Pradesh chief minister argued that he had the democratic right to visit any place in the country.
The TDP alleged that its leaders were arrested by police with deceit. They were taken in a police vehicle with the promise that they would be shown the project but the vehicle was diverted to the Dharmabad ITI.
Maharashtra Home Minister R.R. Patil Friday evening spoke to Naidu over phone and advised him to return to Andhra Pradesh but the latter refused to leave unless he and other leaders were allowed to visit Babli and other projects.
Meanwhile, the TDP continued protests in different parts of Andhra Pradesh against Naidu’s arrest. Party activists staged protests outside the offices of district collectors Saturday.