The Rajahmundry Central Prison, which hit the headlines as TDP national president N. Chandrababu Naidu was shifted there after ACB court remanded him in connection with the alleged skill development scam, is a mute witness to the Indian freedom struggle while it was at its peak in the early 1920s.
Between 1920 and 1940, many luminaries who led the freedom struggle in the Coastal Andhra Pradesh and Rayalaseema regions in the then Madras Presidency, were imprisoned in the 2A and 2B blocks that were built by the Dutch by the Godavari river in 1759. By then, the Dutch had built a fort exclusively for trade purposes and storing merchandise.
On the East Coast, the Dutch were aggressive in the textile trade. Later, the British had also used the fort for their trade purposes until they converted it into a ‘Local Prison’ in 1864. However, it was designated as a Central Prison in 1870.
