Amrutha Avasarala, Pune
The Former Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, N Chandrababu Naidu’s petition to quash the FIR against him in the alleged skill development scam case to be mentioned in the Supreme Court, Tuesday evening.
N Chandrababu Naidu, the ex-CM of Andhra Pradesh is currently in Rajamahendravaram Central Prison on charges of alleged scam of 371 crore rupees during his regime.
The remand of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader is being proceeded in Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) court. He was arrested on 7th September 2023 and taken into judicial custody. He was retained for two additional days for CID’s interrogation.
Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, under Section 17A of Prevention of Corruption Act, moved to Andhra Pradesh High Court to quash the FIR registered against him. Section 17A of Prevention of Corruption Act states that FIR cannot be registered against a public servant without prior sanctions from the appropriate authorities. In this case, the authority concerned is the Governor of Andhra Pradesh. Mr. Naidu’s lawyers have appealed in the HC for not receiving any prior sanctions from the Governor. The HC has refused to take up the plea on 22nd September 2023.
Post investigation on Saturday and Sunday, the CID considers Mr. Naidu as the ‘Principal Conspirator’. To defend himself, the TDP leader moved to the Supreme Court. On Monday, Senior Advocate, Siddharth Luthra on behalf of Chandrababu Naidu tried mentioning on urgent basis but the Supreme Court refused to take up the plea on urgent basis for quashing the FIR against the ex-CM in an alleged skill development scam. The lawyers are asked to mention the case on the 26th of September.
A bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud and Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra said, “Come tomorrow in the mentioning list.”
Mr. Naidu is to remain in remand till 5th October 2023, in Rajamahendravaram Central Prison.
The case dates back to 2014-15. The project was estimated at approximately 3,356 crore rupees, 10% of which was to be funded by the state government under grants-in-aid and the remaining was to be financed by Siemens India. The grants-in-aid of 371 crore rupees was transferred to Siemens India for setting up six centers in the state.
According to the Crime Investigation Department (CID), Naidu’s government has sanctioned the corporation with an executive order without the approval of the cabinet. The 371 crore rupee transaction to Siemens India and DesignTech was made without due verification and confirmation of credibility of the companies. Their financial worth and the actual market prices of their products were not analyzed before making the investment. The investment was highly risky as there was no performance guarantee.
CID Investigation reveals that only 58.8 crore rupees have reached the company and the rest of the fund was siphoned off by Suman Bose (MD, Siemens India) and Vikas Kanvilkar (MD, Design Tech). Furthermore, not even a single rupee was spent on setting up the skill centers.