HYDERABAD: Andhra Pradesh CM N Chandrababu Naidu received a clean chit Tuesday from ED in the alleged Rs 371-crore skill development corporation scam that led to his arrest in 2023, based on a CID investigation instituted by the then YS Jaganmohan Reddy govt. Naidu spent 53 days in jail before getting bail on Oct 31 last year.
ED’s Hyderabad unit invoked the Prevention of Money Laundering Act to provisionally attach assets worth Rs 23.5 crore belonging to Designtech Systems Private Ltd and others named in the chargesheet, but said there was nothing to link Naidu to alleged misappropriation of funds in govt’s skill and entrepreneurship development project in partnership with Siemens.
On April 5, just over two months before TDP’s electoral landslide paved the way for Naidu’s comeback as CM, CID filed a chargesheet against him and others in a special ACB court in Vijayawada.
ED initiated the investigation based on the FIR registered by CID against Designtech Systems and others for allegedly cheating the AP govt by diverting funds invested by the state in the Siemens project.
The central agency’s investigation revealed that the firm’s MD Vikas Vinayak Khanvelkar, Soumyadri Sekhar Bose, alias Suman Bose (ex-MD of Siemens Industry Software India Pvt Ltd), and their associates Mukul Chandra Agarwal and Suresh Goyal allegedly diverted govt funds via shell companies or defunct entities through multi-layered transactions, using bogus invoices on the pretext of supplying materials/services.
“The services of entry providers were enlisted for diversion of funds, for which they were paid commission. The proceeds of crime in the hands of the accused and entry providers were identified and various movable properties in the form of bank balances and shares, and also immovable properties such as residential properties in Delhi NCR, Mumbai, and Pune, were traced and attached,” ED said.
Earlier, ED had attached fixed deposits amounting to Rs 31.2 Crore of Designtech Systems.
ED has already arrested Khanvelkar, Bose, Agarwal and Goyal and filed a prosecution complaint in the Visakhapatnam PMLA court.