The Crime Investigation Department of Andhra Pradesh police arrested Telugu Desam Party MLC Parchuri Ashok Babu on Thursday midnight in an old case relating to alleged falsification of degree certificate and tampering of service records.
CID Superintendent of Police G R Radhika said in a release that they registered a case against Ashok Babu on the directions of the Lokayukta for entering false information into his service record during his tenure as Assistant Commercial Tax Officer years ago.
Ashok Babu had shown his academic qualification as B.Com though he did not possess a degree. He has been booked under section 477A (officer or servant, willfully, and with intent to defraud), 465 (forgery), 420 (Cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property) and some other sections of law.
"Ashok Babu had also wrongly claimed he was a graduate and mentioned about pending cases in his election affidavit. The department had concluded that there were no pending cases against him," the CID SP said.
"We have gathered crucial evidence against Ashok Babu related to tampering of records. Only then we arrested him,” the SP added. Lashing out at the government over the episode, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu alleged that the MLC was arrested only because he supported the employees during their agitation over pay revision.
"The TDP supported the employees as injustice was being done in the pay revision. The MLC's arrest was nothing but witch-hunt," he said.
Several TDP leaders, including former minister D U Rao, were taken into custody as they sought to meet Ashok Babu at the CID office in Guntur, where he was lodged. The High Court took up a lunch motion against the MLC's arrest and posted the matter to Monday for further hearing.
With PTI inputs.
