HC sets aside ACB special court order in multi-crore skill development scam

VIJAYAWADA: The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Thursday set aside the order of the ACB special court rejecting a CID plea for remand of the former employee, G.V.S. Bhaskar of Siemens Industry Software Pvt Ltd.

The remand had been sought for questioning Bhaskar on his alleged involvement in the multi-crore AP Skill Development Corporation scam.

A single judge HC bench of Justice Bhanumathi heard the revision petition filed by the CID challenging the ACB special court order. The court opined that the order of the lower court was having its (adverse) impact on the progress of case investigation. “The lower courts are not supposed to conduct a mini-trial while considering the remand of the accused,” the HC said.

CID had arrested Bhaskar on March 7 in Noida and brought him to the city on transit warrant. When he was produced before the ACB special court, its judge, after examining the remand report, said section 409 of IPC was not applicable to him. Hence, it directed the CID to proceed in the case by serving notice under section 41(a) of CrPC.

The CID pleaded that it wanted the accused in custody for questioning in order to find out the role of some bigwigs in the scam.