The Crime Investigation Department of the Andhra Pradesh police on Wednesday reiterated that Telugu Desam Party president and former chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu was deeply involved in the Rs 371 crore AP Skill Development Corporation scam and was in the know of things at every stage.
Reacting to the denial of Naidu that he was concerned with only policy matters and had no information about the developments in the project implementation, Sanjay said Naidu’s signature had appeared in 13 different places on documents associated with the scam.
Additionally, Naidu had signed off on the cabinet to approve the budget for the skill development corporation without formally obtaining its approval. “Consequently, funds were channelised out of the corporation into shell companies through hawala mode,” the CID chief said.
“The question arises as to how a private individual like Ganta Subbarao was appointed at the head of the corporation. In fact, he was given three important positions in the corporation with the orders of Naidu,” he said.
Sanjay went on to say that the agreement with Siemens and Digitech was signed contrary to the points mentioned in the government order. “While the agreement says the total project cost was Rs 331 crore, Siemens head office clarified that it was paid only Rs 58.8 crore,” he said, adding that the remaining amount had been diverted to shell companies.
He said the software was purchased only at a cost of Rs 58 crore, but was shown as Rs 2,800 crore on paper. “While in Gujarat, 85 percent of the amount was spent on purchasing of equipment and software, in Andhra Pradesh, it was only on paper and not on the field,” Sanjay alleged.
