Naidu deserves no sympathy: Tammineni Sitaram

Visakhaptnam: Speaker Tammineni Sitaram said that investigating agencies were not blind while arresting former chief minister and TD chief N. Chandrababu Naidu.

Talking to reporters in Srikakulam on Saturday, he said that the truth would be known in court when proceedings begin. He said that several investigating agencies like ED, IT, GST and SEBI had probed the scam and only later was a decision taken by the government.

Sitaram said it would be unfortunate if sympathy was shown to a person accused of looting public money and in the case of Naidu one need not expect people to come on to the roads, beat their chests and tear their clothes.

“The skill development scam is not new. It began two years after Naidu took over as the chief minister in 2014,’’ Sitaram said, adding that a complaint was lodged with ACB in 2017 itself. Without any investigation into the issue or any discussions in the Assembly, the entire case was set aside, he said.

When a note related to the project disappeared, the subject was discussed by the cabinet. He said it was against rules to bypass secretary-level officials and put up a note in the Cabinet.

He wondered how the state government had released funds without getting a rupee from Siemens. He said when the finance department raised queries it was on Naidu’s orders that funds were released as per the note file of the then finance principal secretary.

“What has happened to those funds? Even Siemens told the magistrate under section 164 of Crpc that it had nothing to do with the MoU signed by the state government. An inquiry by GST intelligence revealed that the money was transferred through hawala,” Sitaram said.