AP Skill Scam: ED Attaches Rs 23.54 Crore Properties
Seized assets not related to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu
Hyderabad: The Enforcement Directorate (ED), Hyderabad, on Tuesday provisionally attached Rs 23.54 crore worth of properties under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), in a case relating to misuse of funds in the AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) Siemens project, according to a press release.
ED sources told Deccan Chronicle that the seized assets were not related to AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu.
The ED initiated an investigation based on an FIR registered by the AP Crime Investigation Department in the case of APSSDC Siemens project against Designtech Systems Pvt. Ltd. (DTSPL) and others for allegedly cheating the AP government by diverting and siphoning funds invested by the government in the Siemens project for skilling purposes.
ED investigation revealed that Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, managing director of DTSPL, Soumyadri Sekhar Bose alias Suman Bose, former managing director of Siemens Industry Software India Pvt. Ltd. and their close associates Mukul Chandra Agarwal and Suresh Goyal diverted the government funds with the help of shell entities through multi-layered transactions and siphoned off the funds by using bogus invoices under the pretext of supply of materials and services. The services of entry providers were taken for the diversion of funds for which commissions were paid to them.
The proceeds of crime were in the form of movable properties in the form of bank balances and shares and immovable properties in the form of residential properties in Delhi NCR, Mumbai and Pune. They were traced and attached.
Previously, ED had attached fixed deposits of Rs 31.2 crore of DTSPL, and the attachment was confirmed by the Adjudicating Authority of PMLA. The ED had arrested Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, Suman Bose, Mukul Chandra Agarwal and Suresh Goyal and fielded a prosecution complaint before the Special PMLA Court in Visakhapatnam. The court has taken cognizance of the same and further investigation is ongoing, the ED statement said.