PNS|Vijayawada
The Andhra Pradesh Crime Investigation Department (AP CID) arrested a former employee of Siemens Industrial Software Private Limited in the multi-crore AP Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC) scam.
According to sources from the investigating agency, GVS Bhaskar from Noida was arrested on Wednesday and was being brought to Vijayawada on a transit warrant. Bhaskar has allegedly manipulated the estimates/valuation of the APSSDC-Siemens project.
According to the CID, Bhaskar had prepared the project report along with the other co-accused and puffed up the valuation of the Siemens skill development programme to Rs 3,300 crore and that the State government has to pay 10 per cent of the project cost of Rs 371 crore.
Though the software supplied by Siemens Industrial Software Pvt Ltd has invoiced at just Rs 58 crore (without any discount) the accused Bhaskar manipulated the project estimates and projected the figure as Rs 3,300 crore,” according to sources.
According to the government orders, the Siemens skill development programme partners would contribute 90 percent of the project cost. Bhaskar and others allegedly colluded with state government officials to manipulate the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to inflate the work order to Siemens and Designtech to Rs 371 crore.
On the other hand, it is alleged that Bhaskar’s wife, Upadhyayula Aparna, a senior IAS officer from the UP was allegedly given an inter-cadre deputation to Andhra Pradesh by Bhaskar with the support of former APSSDC MD and CEO G Subba Rao.
As a precondition for releasing funds to the technology partners, the APSSDC officials sought a third-party evaluation of the project. The former employee of Siemens allegedly contacted the officials of the Central Institute of Tools Design (CITD) and managed to manipulate its report in favour of the co-accused and himself. Bhaskar later moved to M/s Aptus Healthcare from Siemens. The Central tax authorities later identified Aptus as a shell company formed to siphon off funds in collusion with M/s Designtech, M/s Skillar, etc.
