ACB Court Delays Hearing on Naidu\'s Bail Plea in AP Skill Development Scam

Vijayawada: The ACB court has deferred hearings on Telugu Desam president N. Chandrababu Naidu’s plea for bail in the AP skill development scam and the CID’s plea for five days’ custody of Naidu for further probe into the case to Thursday.

Additional advocate general, appearing for the CID during the hearing here on Wednesday, argued that the skill development scam was carried out in the name of Siemens company and there was no approval from the Cabinet to enter the MoU for developing the skill centres.

AAG appealed to the court to have Naidu’s passport seized as his former personal assistant P. Srinivas fled from the country. He argued for dismissal of Naidu’s petition for bail, by saying that the TD chief would influence the witnesses in case he was released on bail.

The AAG argued that there was a role for Naidu in the escape of accused Srinivas and Manoj Vasudevan Pardhasani from India to foreign countries.

“A sum of Rs 371 crore from public funds was abused by the accused by floating shell companies. The GST wing alerted the state about tax evasion in 2017, seeking a CBI probe,” he said, adding that when the case was under inquiry, Section 17-A of Prevention of Corruption Act, was amended.

He argued that such section was not applicable to Naidu.

Naidu’s counsel Pramod Kumar Dhube argued that his client Naidu was having no role in the fleeing of the accused Srinivas and Manoj. He told the court that the then finance secretary K. Sunitha went to Gujarat, studied the project and ruled out any objection.

It was the Siemens project and cost evaluation committee that fixed the price for procuring the equipment for the skill project and Naidu was not a part of that committee, he argued.

He argued that his client, Naidu, was arrested without serving of notice and the probe into his role was started only after his arrest.

Referring to the CID seeking further questioning of Naidu, he asked, “What was the need, as it had done this for two days already.”

He argued that the Siemens project came into existence only after the then Cabinet gave its nod. How could Naidu be implicated in the case, he asked.

After hearing both the parties, the ACB court announced that it would continue the hearing on Thursday.