VIJAYAWADA: Amidst high drama, in an early morning operation former chief minister of united Andhra Pradesh and chief of the Telugu Desam Party (TDP) N Chandrababu Naidu was arrested by Andhra Pradesh Criminal Investigation Department (CID) from RK Function Hall at Gnanapuram in Nandyala town in connection to the alleged corruption charges. 

The alleged charges are related to the multi-crore skill development scam allegations and Naidu has been accused of a financial scam amounting to Rs 371 crore and is named as the principal conspirator. 

The CID has alleged that the government order for the said amount was issued under Naidu’s instructions, intending to cause wrongful loss to the public exchequer and gain to private individuals. 

According to the charges leveled by the investigating agency, their probe implicates Naidu, along with his party TDP as beneficiaries of the funds that were misappropriated in the scam. 

They charge that the scam entailed orchestrating the transfer of public funds to private entities via shell companies for private gains, and further added that the ultimate use of the misappropriated funds, including cash holdings with people like Suman Bose and Vikas Khanvilkar MD of DesignTech Systems Pvt Ltd were under further examination.

After coming to power in 2014, the Andhra Pradesh government led by Naidu had proposed to establish the AP State Skill Development Corporation (APSSDC), under public-private partnership mode, and signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Siemens India in January 2015 to set up six skill development centres across the state in collaboration with DesignTech Systems.

The CID says that the government released Rs 371 crore to Siemens and DesignTech for setting up six centres of excellence, without any tender and without approval from the state cabinet. These funds were siphoned off to shell companies like Allied Computers, Skillers India Pvt Ltd, Knowledge Podium, Cadence Partners and ETA Greens. Not a single rupee was spent on APSSDC.

The former CM has however denied all charges and has said he was prepared to sacrifice his life to safeguard the interests of the Telugu people.

After his arrest, he was taken to Vijayawada for further questioning at the SIT office.  As per procedure, he was also taken to Vijayawada Government Hospital for a medical checkup and also produced before the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) court in Vijayawada for police remand. 

Following the arrest of their party supremo TDP leaders and workers staged a protest across the state and heavy bandobast has been clamped across sensitive areas.