A special court at Vijayawada has said that prima facie case of cheating, criminal breach of trust, forgery and corruption has been found against the former Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu in connection with the skill development program scam case.
The Court was hearing an investigation case by the Andhra Pradesh Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) in connection with the skill development program scam case in Andhra Pradesh.
The court under Special judge BSV Himabindu found that based on the material on record, a prima facie case was made out against Naidu for offences under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) as well as the Prevention of Corruption Act.
The Court also said that the former CM Naidu, while holding the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh office was engaged in misappropriation of government funds to the tune of ₹279 crore.
The order mentioned that the material in the remand report, statement of witnesses, material collected in the CD File and accused alteration memo on record, prima facie shows that Accused no.37 in pursuance of criminal conspiracy, while holding his office as public servant colluded with other accused committed misappropriation of government funds to the tune of Rs.279 crores by corrupt and illegal methods huge loss to the Government Exchequer.
The Court has remanded the former CM Naidu to judicial custody of 14 days.
The former CM in a plea challenging the CID’s remand report against him, had asserted before the Vijayawada court that he had been falsely implicated in the case.
He also claimed that there was a clear statutory violation of Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
Section 17A deals with the need for prior sanction to enquire into the actions of public servants done in the discharge of their official duties.
Naidu’s petition contended that in his case, since he was Chief Minster, the Governor of the State would be the sanctioning authority.
While so, Naidu claimed that his prosecution in the corruption case was not proper as the prosecution did not obtain prior sanction from the Governor of Andhra Pradesh.
Naidu also highlighted that the alleged offences were related to policy decisions that had been approved by the State Cabinet. Therefore, these decisions could not be questioned through criminal proceedings, Naidu contended.
The Court decided to remand him to Central Prison, Rajamahendravaram, which is well-equipped to accommodate high-profile accused taking to the given security concerns raised by the former CM, who holds Z plus security of the National Security Guard (NSG).
The case against Naidu pertains to skill development program scam that diverted government funds intended for a skill development project into various shell companies through fraudulent invoices, which did not correspond with the delivery of services.
A per the investigation, what initially began as a project primarily funded by technology partners, was unlawfully transformed into a government-funded venture through a tripartite agreement.
This agreement resulted in the release of ₹371 crore by the Government of Andhra Pradesh.
Later these funds were purportedly misappropriated by officials of Siemens Industry Software (India) Private Limited and DesignTech System Private Limited, who failed to fulfill their obligations.
As per the latest probe by ACB,at least ₹241 crore of the ₹371 crore allocated for the scheme was misappropriated.