Naidu overruled officials' recommendations: AP CID

Vijayawada: State CID additional DG, N Sanjay, has said former chief minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu is the prime accused in the AP Skill Development scam.

“CID investigations proved the diversion of funds to shell companies, he told the media at the national capital on Sunday. Sanjay with state additional advocate general Ponnavolu Sudhakar explained the facts of the case and emphasized the quantum of irregularities that took place in the skill development corporation.

Records showed that Chandrababu was the mastermind behind the scam and he overruled the officials’ recommendations. The entire project was meticulously orchestrated by Chandrababu Naidu as the then chief minister. He exercised his authority to override the recommendations and decisions of the officials entrusted with their execution,” the ADG said.

The ADG took a jibe at TD general secretary Nara Lokesh for attempting to “spin a deliberate lie” in relation to the skill development scam. He said, " Lokesh has been going around and claiming that close to 2 lakh students were trained under Siemens. This is totally false. The scam happened in 2015-2016, when the swindling of Rs 371 crore in the name of a 90:10 arrangement unfolded. It's easy for them to mix it up and spin a lie, saying that they have been training lakhs of youths in the state.”

“It is to be noted that the then government had, for 4 years, released a sum of Rs 770 crore. This amount, other than the Siemens project, was used towards skill development. But many leaders are trying to pin the entire credit to the Siemens and APSSDC project, which in reality had little or no impact in building the student's skills set.”

Sanjay stated that the accused in this case were misguiding people by saying that this project was approved by the CITD but this was also false.

He said, “According to the deposition made by the then principal director of CITD, Sujayat Khan, he had not been informed about the necessity for an independent valuation. His actions were solely guided by the information he received from the officials representing M/s Siemens and APSSDC. Moreover, Sujayat Khan pointed out that his team lacked the necessary expertise to calculate the value of the software in question. Consequently, his evaluation report heavily relied on the content of emails received from employees of M/s Siemens.”

The CID ADG said, “ Amit Sehgal, serving as legal counsel and nodal officer for SISW, provided testimony under Section 164 of the Cr.P.C. before a magistrate. He further stated that in his statement, he affirmed that Siemens had no involvement in the agreement and did not receive funds from the project.

He said the Enforcement Directorate also had indicated that government money to the tune of Rs 241 crore was swindled in a dubious manner and has “established the illegalities.”

“The ED noted that the money was siphoned off by way of funds being released to Designtech Systems Pvt Ltd through M/s Skillar Enterprises India Pvt Ltd and thereafter through a web of shell companies,” he added.