Chandrababu Naidu reaches Hyderabad to grand welcome by supporters

Hyderabad, Nov 1: TDP supremo and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu arrived in Hyderabad on Wednesday evening to a warm welcome by hundreds of his supporters.

Naidu, who was released from jail on Tuesday after the Andhra Pradesh High Court granted him interim bail, reached Hyderabad for treatment.

The Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief arrived by a special aircraft from Gannavaram Airport in Vijayawada.

Hundreds of TDP workers, supporters and techies accorded him a warm welcome at Begumpet Airport.

Holding TDP flags and placards, they were raising slogans of ‘Jai Babu, Jai Jai Babu’.

Naidu, who was sitting in his car, waved at the crowd and thanked his supporters with folded hands. Naidu’s supporters on two-wheelers accompanied his convoy of vehicles. Police had a tough time to clear the way for the TDP chief’s convoy.

He will stay at his residence in Jubilee Hills. He is likely to undergo cataract surgery in the city.

Earlier, Naidu had reached his residence in Amaravati early Wednesday morning, 13 hours after he walked out of Rajahmundry jail. After spending 52 days in judicial custody in the Skill Development Corporation case, Naidu had walked out of jail on Tuesday following the interim bail granted by the high court on health grounds.

The 73-year-old was accorded a warm welcome by thousands of supporters all along the route from Rajahmundry to Amaravati. It took 13 hours to cover a distance of 186 km, which in normal course takes three-and-half hours.

The High Court granted interim bail to Naidu for four weeks on health grounds. The bail is subject to certain conditions. Naidu was directed to submit a surety of Rs.1 lakh. The court asked him not to influence anyone related to the case and surrender before the court on November 29.

The Crime Investigation Department (CID) had arrested Naidu on September 9 in the Skill Development scam which allegedly took place when he was the Chief Minister. The next day a court in Vijayawada had sent him to judicial custody. The CID had later filed PT warrant petitions against Naidu in three other corruption cases.

After walking out of jail on Tuesday, Naidu said in 40-year-long political career, he did nothing wrong. "I neither did anything wrong nor allowed anyone to do anything wrong," he said.