PNS | Vijayawada
AP CID Additional DG N Sanjay has made it clear that as per their investigation, TDP chief Nara Chandrababu Naidu is the prime accused in the AP Skill Development scam and diverted funds to shell companies. Addressing media persons in New Delhi on Sunday, CID chief Sanjay along with Andhra Pradesh Additional Advocate General Ponnavolu Sudhakar Reddy explained the facts of the case and emphasised the irregularities that have taken place in the Skill Development Scam.
Sanjay said that Chandrababu was the mastermind and he overruled the officials’ recommendations. He explained that the entire project was meticulously orchestrated under the then chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, who exercised his authority to override the recommendations and decisions made by the officials entrusted with its execution.
AP CID ADG Sanjay took a jibe at Nara Lokesh for attempting to spin a deliberate lie in the Skill Development Scam. He said, “Nara Lokesh has been going around and claiming that close to 2 lakh students were trained under Siemens. However, that is totally false. The scam happened in the year 2015-2016 when the swindling of Rs 371 crores 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 in the state. It is to be noted that the then government for 4 years released a sum of Rs 770 Cr and this amount, other than the Siemens project, was used towards skill development. But many leaders are trying to pin the entire credit to Siemens and APSSDC project, which in reality had little or no impact in building the student’s skill set.”
Sanjay stated that the accused in this case are misguiding people by saying that this project was approved by CITD but this is totally false. He pointed out, “According to the deposition made by the then Principal Director of CITD, Sujayat Khan, he indicated that 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.”
CID ADG Sanjay stated that Amit Sehgal, serving as the 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 any funds from the project. He pointed out that the Enforcement Directorate also had indicated that the Government money to the tune of Rs. 241 Crore was swindled in a dubious manner and established the illegalities. He added that the Enforcement Directorate noted that the money was siphoned off by funds being released to Designtech Systems Pvt Ltd through M/s Skillar Enterprises India Pvt Ltd and thereafter through a web of shell companies.
