Chandrababu Naidu arrest: Question Andhra poll panel chief, demands TDP

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: The Opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) on Tuesday said the Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department should question the state election commissioner, Neelam Sahani, in the “skill development scam case” as to whether she “played a key role” in the project in connection to which party chief and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was arrested.

The part claimed that the current state poll panel chief had issued orders (on implementation of the scheme) when she was an IAS officer serving in the state bureaucracy.

“The CID chief,  Sanjay, who has been alleging the very establishment of the Skill Development Corporation should first question Neelam Sahani, who played a key role in the whole project by issuing “GO Nos 47 and 48,” TDP national spokesman Kommareddy Pattabhiram told reporters on Tuesday.

“If this retired IAS officer is questioned by the CID chief, we will know if there were any irregularities in the project. Another retired IAS officer,  Ajay Kallam, who released funds for the project, should also be questioned on facts about the project,” he added.

He alleged that the law enforcement authorities in the state were “playing into the hands of Chief Minister Jagan Mohan Reddy”, who, according to him, falsely implicated TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu in the Skill Development scam case.

Earlier, on Tuesday, the Andhra Pradesh High Court adjourned the bail petition of  Naidu to September 21.

Naidu was sent to judicial custody on September 10 for 14 days, till September 23, by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Vijayawada in connection with the case.

The case in which Naidu is arrested pertains to the establishment of clusters of Centres of Excellence (CoEs) in the state of Andhra Pradesh, with a total estimated project value of Rs 3300 crore, as per the officials.

The agency officials also claimed that the alleged fraud has caused a huge loss — in excess of Rs 300 crores — to the state.