Chandrababu Naidu: In a chargesheet about the Rs 114-crore AP Fibernet scam, the Andhra Pradesh CID has named N Chandrababu Naidu as the primary offender.
In short
- Chief Accused in the AP Fibernet Scam Case is Chandrababu Naidu
- The CID chargesheet also names two other people.
- Naidu is charged with tampering with the tender procedure to assign a work order.
N Chandrababu Naidu, the Telugu Desam Party supremo, has been named the principal accused in a chargesheet submitted by Andhra Pradesh Police’s Crime Investigation Department in connection with the Rs 114-crore AP Fibernet scam. The chargesheet was submitted on Friday before the Vijayawada ACB Court. In addition to Naidu, the two accused individuals mentioned by the CID were K Sambasiva Rao, an IRTS officer, and V Hari Krishna Prasad, managing director of Net India, Hyderabad.
The energy, infrastructure, and investment department portfolios were held by Naidu, the chief minister at the time. He suggested moving on with the fiber net project, the CID stated in a statement.
Chandrababu Naidu named the main suspect in AP Fibernet Scam by CID
It claimed that the procurement process was rigged to award a work order for Phase 1 of the AP Fibernet Project worth Rs 330 crore to a preferred business. The alleged tender rigging case took place between 2014 and 2019 under the previous TDP government. The CID further stated that various alleged irregularities occurred, from tender allocation to project completion, resulting in a massive loss to the exchequer.
According to the CID chargesheet, Naidu sanctioned the estimate for the Fibernet project without taking into account the absence of a market survey to determine item prices or standards to adhere to. Additionally, the CID observed that the ex-Chief Minister purportedly exerted pressure on senior government officials to involve Hari Krishna Prasad in multiple tender evaluation committees, lift the blacklisting of Terasoftware Pvt Ltd, and ultimately grant the tender to the said company, alongside other irregularities.
The CID’s charge sheet also emphasized that the accused individuals allegedly funneled the misappropriated funds through a network of companies purportedly owned by their associates, utilizing counterfeit invoices.
Ratnavali