“Money Trail Clearly Seen”: Andhra CID On Chandrababu Naidu’s Arrest

Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh) [India]: Amid protests over the arrest of Telugu Desam Party (TDP) chief N Chandrababu Naidu, the Additional DG of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Wednesday said the money trail is “very clearly seen” adding that it is a very clear case of government funds transferred and the project of purpose never happened.

“In this case, a government corporation was formed and it was exclusively formed for this purpose of skill development and the proposal was moved by some private individuals…The money trail is very clearly seen,” Additional DG of CID Sanjay told media.

Further, DIG Sanjay said, “You see the role of the ED also in this when they moved in and arrested a few people. So this is a very clear case of government money being transferred and the project itself never happened… How the money went into shell companies and all, is again part of the investigation. So further investigation will reveal the exact end-to-end tie-ups.”

Chandrababu Naidu was sent to judicial custody on Sunday for 14 days, till September 23, by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Vijayawada in connection with an alleged Skill Development Corporation scam.

Earlier, TDP workers held a protest on Monday in Chittoor against the arrest and judicial custody of the TDP chief in the alleged skill development case.

On Monday State Police also tried to detain several party leaders including TDP MLC Kancherla Srikanth in Chittoor district as a preventive action to maintain law and order in the state.

Protests were also held in Tirupati and West Godavari districts against the arrest and judicial custody of Chandrababu Naidu.

The case in which Naidu is arrested pertains to the establishment of clusters of Centers 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 to the state government in excess of Rs 300 crore.

As per the CID, the investigation has revealed serious irregularities such as before any expenditure by private entities, the then state government provided an advance of Rs 371 crores, representing the entire 10 per cent commitment by the government.

Most of the money advanced by the government was diverted to shell companies through fake invoices, with no actual delivery or sale of the items mentioned in the invoices, CID officials said.

In its remand report, the CID has said that according to the investigation so far, the total amount spent by private entities on six skill development clusters is sourced exclusively from funds advanced by the Government of Andhra Pradesh and the Andhra Pradesh Skill Development Centre, totalling Rs 371 crore.